Leader Dynamics Series T2 MK5

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Leader T2 MK5 Series weapons were chambered for the 5.56 mm cartridge and manufactured by Leader Dynamics of Justin Street, Smithfield, NSW Australia. (1978-1982/1983) The Leader was the brainchild of weapons designer Charles St. George. What was unique about this endeavor was that Australia had never designed or manufactured its own commercial gas operated semi-auto rifle. The Australian Army at the time used the FN L1A1 made at the Lithgow Government facility and quantities of M16A1s.

Fred Riddle of Dupont Australia and Charles St. George worked together (with the input of Dupont USA) to select an appropriate engineering plastic for the pistol grip, handguards and butt-stock. The Leader weapons were the first to use the super tough Zytel material which later on became the standard material on almost all assault rifles and handgun frames.

The Leader was originally imported into the U.S. by Ed Hoffman and Tim Painter of World Public Safety, CA. The Leader was exhibited at the New Orleans Shot Show and orders in excess of $3,000,000 were written. The original buyers/distributors were John Giovino NY, Bumble Bee CA and Ellett Brothers.

Charles St George designed the production tooling and the factory at Smithfield began to initially turn out 200 units per month, which increased to 400 per month some months later. Charles St. George developed a selective fire version (including a sub-machine gun version of the Leader) which attracted the interest of the Australian Army Tank Corps. Luigi Franchi in Italy, Prata de Prata in Portugal and the Sultanate of Oman Armed Forces who visited Australia. ATA Target Systems of Albury NSW hosted the visitors, and Charles St. George together with Terry Dinnen demonstrated the Leader weapons on ATA's Dart System. The Leader demonstration resulted in Oman placing trial weapon orders for 12 Leader select rifles and 12 Leader submachine guns.

During this period, Charles St. George departed for Europe and conducted demonstrations in Portugal, Malta and Italy. Luigi Franchi were very impressed with the Leader and wanted to purchase a manufacturing license with customers in Europe and Asia. Unfortunately, Jack Allen and Brian Shaw the 2 other partners in Leader, St. George being the third partner, were not able to conclude a satisfactory contract with Luigi Franchi, who eventually developed their own weapon.

From a manufacturing undertaking, the Leader episode is indeed remarkable. Charles S. George had to convince Australian engineering companies that it was possible to make gun parts and that close tolerances were not imperative, as everyone is led to believe. Barrels from Lithgow were too expensive so St. George designed and built his own button rifling machine using a self rotating button with a pushing motion. The barrel blanks were imported from Parker Hale in the UK with H&K providing the chamber machining details and Chartered Industries of Singapore supplied the 20 round M16 magazines.

If you look at the design of the Leader weapon, it is quite simple and tooling cost was kept to a minimum. The receiver was a simple 16 gauge steel square tube readily available and saved thousands of dollars in die costs.

In 1982 St. George split from both Brian Shaw and Jack Allan and moved on and established Armtech Pty Ltd. Leader Dynamics was subsequently sold off to a Businessman who formed his own company, Australian Automatic Arms and started to make the Leader rifles in Tasmania.

Of interest to those that study weapons, designs and evolution, Barrett Firearms copied and uses the Leader Triangular breech bolt design for the M82A1 and its bolt action guns.

[edit] Design and manufacturing specifications

The Leader actually had a self cleaning gas system without the need for a gas regulator and a unique charging system that did not reciprocate mounted over the left action rod and supported by the barrel extension. The bolt carrier group was assembled into a modular system, obviating the loss of parts during dis-assembly. Simple spot weldments were used throughout the fabrication and full use of early powder metal parts that were used for the rear sight system and magazine latch.