L86 LSW

The BAE Systems L86 Light Support Weapon (LSW) is a light machine gun in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, where it made its first and only appearance so far.

History
Both the L85A2 Rifle and L86A2 Light Support Weapon originate from the British SA80 weapons program of the 1980's. Whereas the original L85A1 was to replace the FN FAL as the primary service weapon for British infantry, the L86A1 was originally intended to replace the venerable Bren in the role of the squad automatic weapon. Since the upgrade to A2 standard however, the L86 is now primarily used as a designated marksman's rifle.

Much like its assault rifle counterpart, the L86A2 LSW is built in a bullpup configuration and is chambered for 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition. Though both usually come equipped with the SUSAT optical sight by default, they can also make use of their default ironsights should the need arise. An increasing number of weapons have been rebuilt to incorporate a Picatinny Rail, allowing them to accommodate a variety of other modifications (such as a Red Dot Sight or an ACOG).

Singleplayer
The L86 LSW makes its first, and so far, only appearance, as a Light Machine Gun in Modern Warfare 2. It appears in both the campaign and multiplayer modes with a 100-round drum magazine and ironsights. Uniquely, when the ACOG Scope attachment is equipped, it takes the appearance of the British SUSAT sight.

In singleplayer, the L86 makes its only appearance in the mission Loose Ends. Three of them (complete with SUSAT sights) can be found in the room next to the kitchen on the first floor of the house. Another L86, with ironsights only, can be found in the basement.

Multiplayer
The L86 is one of two already-unlocked light machine guns, and the primary weapon for the default Overwatch class. The L86 LSW has one of the highest damages per second of any weapon in the game. At close range its damage per second is beaten only by the shotguns, the G18 and MP5K, and is equal to the TAR-21 and the Vector. The L86 LSW has the highest damage per second at long range, and is able to kill in two shots with Stopping Power or three shots without it. Out of all of the LMGs, the L86 has the second fastest reload time, after the AUG HBAR. (The latter has a reload time comparable to some Assault rifles) However, the L86 has heavy recoil when firing in full-auto and its iron sights are generally disliked. As a result, it is most commonly used in conjunction with the Bling perk, with a grip and sight attachment. Like other LMGs, it also suffers from a slow ADS draw time, although this can easily be mitigated with the Sleight of Hand Pro perk. Firing in bursts or even semi-automatic shots can make the L86 more accurate at longer ranges and make it easily capable of racking up kills on maps with tight alleyways where suppressing fire is often needed.

As with all Light Machine Guns (with the exception of the AUG HBAR), whenever a player puts an extended magazine attachment on the L86 LSW, the magazine size of the L86 is doubled, making it capable of holding double the ammunition in a single mag - or putting the players entire inventory of ammo into a single magazine if the player is not using scavenger. This means the player could replace the Sleight of Hand perk for a different perk such as Bling, or One Man Army.

Weapon Attachments

 * Grip
 * Red Dot Sight
 * Silencer
 * ACOG Scope / SUSAT
 * FMJ
 * Holographic Sight
 * Heartbeat Sensor


 * Thermal Scope
 * Extended Mags

Behind the Scenes
The L86 was supposed to be an L85 rifle at one point, as the L86's texture sheet has the L85's 30-round magazine on its texture sheet. Its kill icon in muliplayer is still an L85.

Trivia

 * The L86 LSW is one of the 3 weapons that has it's proprietary sight, the others being the TAR 21 and F2000.
 * The pickup icon shows the L85 infantry rifle, rather than the L86 LSW. However in the Museum, the correct pick-up icon is used.
 * The L86 LSW is also one of the few weapons where an attached Heartbeat Sensor will be fully visible when aiming down the sight.
 * The sound of the L86 firing sounds highly similar to the Dragunov from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It is most likely that Infinity Ward took the sound byte from the Dragunov and used the same sound repeatedly to make the fully automatic sound on the L86 LSW. In reality, these two weapons sound nothing alike.
 * The grip is present behind the trigger grouping, as it should be - yet the player model holds it as if it weren't there. This can be easily seen on the Create-A-Class picture.
 * As you escape to the extraction point on Loose Ends, Archer briefly mentions that the Ultranationalists are using L86 machine guns on Ghost and Roach's position.
 * The only missions that the L86 LSW appears on are Loose Ends and the corresponding Spec Ops mission 'Estate Takedown'.
 * The L86 Is the only Primary Weapon in Modern Warfare 2 that has a differant styled ACOG Scope than other guns. Note that this ACOG will not be affected by EMPs, so it can be used effectively.