The Australian Army provisionally accepted the EF88/F90 rifle design in May 2014, ushering in a new rifle design from Thales Australia to replace its current F88 Austeyr family of 5.56 mm service rifles. This event marked a significant milestone in Phase 3C - the lethality element - of the Department of Defence's (DoD's) Land 125 soldier combat system programme. The F88 was built by Australian Defence Industries' Lithgow Small Arms Factory, which is now owned by Thales Australia, and is a development of the Austrian-made 5.56 mmArmee Universal Gewehr (AUG) assault rifle designed and produced by Steyr in collaboration with the Austrian Army in the 1970s. The Austeyr has undergone enhancements including the replacement of the fixed carrying-handle/sight with a MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny rail in 1999 (F88SA1) and a subsequent update in 2009 (F88SA2) that added an improved sighting rail, new side mount, and provision for a M203 40 mm under barrel grenade launcher (UBGL).
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