Sunday, 4 March 2018

Cold War Skirmishes: Sterling SMG

This week we take a break from Frozen Skies and do a Cold War Skirmishes installment.

We'll be taking a look at the Sterling SMG, the British Army's submachine gun that served alongside the L1A1 SLR for much of the Cold War period. It was used by a number of other countries in a number of different conflicts (including both sides of the Falklands War). Star Wars fans may recognize the Sterling as being the basis for the blaster used by Imperial Stormtroopers in the Original Trilogy.

As ever, brief overview of the weapon and modifications/variants.

Sterling SMG


The Sterling SMG was developed during the latter years of WW2 as a potential replacement for the famous Sten Gun and was even used in combat by British airborne troops before the end of the war. However, it wasn't until 1951 that it was decided that the Sterling would be adopted as the new SMG of the British Army.

There would be a number of different variants of the Sterling, though model changes were minimal throughout its development life. Variants include a suppressed version and a version chambered for 7.62x51mm NATO rounds intended to be used as an emergency standby weapon in case of attack during the Cold War. Canada, Chile and India produced their own licensed versions of the Sterling, the Indian versions are still in production for use by the Indian Armed Forces.

The Sterling also could fit a bayonet of similar design as that of the SLR, though it was rarely employed other than for ceremonial duties. The bayonet stats in the Savage Worlds rulebook would work just fine.

Sterling SMG (12/24/480, 2d6, RoF 3, 34 shots, Min -, Notes: AP1, Auto)

Suppressed Variant:- -4 penalty on listen based Notice rolls to hear weapon being fired.

7.62 NATO variant (24/48/96, 2d8+1, RoF 3, 30 shots, Min Str d6, Notes: AP2, Auto)

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