Sterling S11: Donkey in a Thoroughbred Race

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In the 1960s, the Sterling company began to worry about the prospects of continued sales of the Sterling (Patchett) SMG, especially in light of new competitors like the H&K MP5. Its chief design engineer, Frank Waters, created the S11 as a gun to replace the classic Sterling. The S11 was based on a simple stamped/folded steel receiver, and was intended to have a lower unit cost that the Sterling. It kept the excellent Patchett magazine, but had a barrel and sights offset to the left side, and offered two separate bayonet lugs - one for the No5 rifle and one for the L1A1/FAL.
Unfortunately for Sterling, it was determined that the tooling cost would have made the S11 actually more expensive that the existing guns, whose tooling costs had been long since covered. Also, the S11 was just not a very good or very reliable design - a "donkey in a thoroughbred race" to quote one Sterling manager. This one prototype was the only example ever made, and the project was shelved in 1967 in favor of expanding into more civilian models of the original Sterling.
Many thanks to the Royal Armouries for allowing me to film and disassemble this one of a kind submachine gun! The NFC collection there - perhaps the best military small arms collection in Western Europe - is available by appointment to researchers:
royalarmouries.org/research/n...
You can browse the various Armouries collections online here:
royalarmouries.org/collection/
Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
PO Box 87647
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[@RedXlV]

The MP5 might have taken away a lot of Sterling's customers, but H&K was never able to secure that lucrative Galactic Empire contract.

[@2MeterLP]

Imagine telling your engineers to come up with a competitor to the MP5 and they bring you this. Probably no christmas bonuses that year.

[@twentylush]

Thank god, i was tired of my bayonet running out of ammo

[@h.plovecat4307]

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him...But we don't want to spend too much.."

[@rafalemiec8683]

2 bayonets at once... and one might have wondered why it was the Brits who came up with Warhammer 40k and its shenanigans.

[@Calvin_Coolage]

This is the firearms equivalent of that English paper you write all of 2 hours before it's due.

[@tws1man582]

Everyone gangster till a mad man runs at you with two bayonets on the same gun

[@dillonpatterson4310]

"They had an excellent reputation." Come on you missed an easy Sterling reputation there.

[@iamzid]

i remember someone told me once, "just because something's rare doesn't mean it's better, it just mean's that there's less of them."

[@gregoryfilin8040]

"There's no particular reason why" just about sums this gun up perfectly.

[@vulpes1446]

English Army: We need a high performance submachi-

[@jameskoch9567]

Ian: "And the barrel is also offset for no particular reason."

[@ManDuderGuy]

"They made one."

[@eriolhiiragizawa729]

GAU-8 Avenger engineers: "We need a plane on a gun!"

[@jghutta]

"Mr. Waters, are two bayonets really necessary?"

[@damiangrouse4564]

I was left with the empty feeling that both bayonets should have been tried on for our benefit.

[@Poorgeniu5]

If this were to be a Borderlands weapon, it'll certainly add 200% melee damage.

[@EPWillard]

"at least on this one" he says with the only one in existence

[@RailgunCyclops]

So the Empire contracted Sterling for their E-11 blasters

[@justincarrasco3680]

Peter: “What would you do if you had a million dollars?”