London - Standard rifles used by the British armed forces are so defective that all 300,000 are being recalled for multi-million-pound modifications, the Times reports this morning.
The overhaul of the SA80 rifles is expected to take at least two years. The report is likely to embarrass the government following Wednesday's revelations that Britain spent almost £1bn on upgrading RAF Tornadoes only to find they could no longer fire state-of-the-art missiles.