Sterling Armaments Company

Sterling Armaments Company was an arms manufacturer based in Dagenham, famous for manufacturing the L2A3 (the 'Sterling submachine gun'), AR18 and SAR-87 assault rifles and parts of Jaguar cars. The company went bankrupt in 1988.

During the Second World War, engineers George Lanchester and George William Patchett oversaw the manufacture of the Lanchester sub-machine gun. Patchett afterwards went on to design the Patchett machine carbine which, after a competitive trial in 1947, was adopted by the British Army in 1953 as the L2A1 Sterling sub-machine gun, replacing the Sten gun. The weapon was later upgraded to the L2A3, the highly successful Sterling Mk IV.