Leader Dynamics Series T2 MK5

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.

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. St. George developed a selective-fire version called the T2 (including a carbine version of the T1 Leader) which attracted the interest of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps, as well as foreign arms companies, including Luigi Franchi (a subsidiary of Beretta) in Italy, Fábrica Militar de Braço de Prata in Portugal, and foreign militaries, such as the Sultanate of Oman Armed Forces. 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-fire rifles (SAR) and 12 Leader assault carbines (SAC).

The cocking lever, like that of the Heckler & Koch G3, ran from the forend to the bolt, was non-reciprocating, and could fold forward out of the way. It was mounted over the left action rod and supported by the barrel extension. The cylindrical flash hider was similar to that on the early model Colt Commando models (and suffered from the same problems). It had a diopter rear sight that could be set to 100, 200 and 300 meters and a hooded post front sight. The selector switch was similar to that of the AR-18 and was set for Safe-Fire in semi-automatic or Safe-Fire-Auto in selective fire.

The weapon 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.

Charles St. George had to convince Australian engineering companies that it was possible to make gun parts and that close tolerances were not imperative, as is the common belief. 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 United Kingdom with H&K providing the chamber machining details and Chartered Industries of Singapore supplied the 20-round M16 magazines.

The Leader actually had a self-cleaning gas system without the need for a gas regulator. The bolt carrier group was derived from that of the AR-18 but was assembled into a modular system such that the bolt, carrier, and guide rods were a self-contained unit, obviating the loss of parts during dis-assembly.[1] Simple spot welds were used throughout the fabrication and full use of early powder-metal parts that were used for the rear sight system and magazine latch.

The cylindrical flash hider was rated as either insufficient or ineffective[2] and was usually replaced by an aftermarket Colt AR-15/M16 A2 "birdcage" model by owners. The loose tolerances for the magazine well could allow the magazine to move up inside it when the bolt was pulled to the rear, causing potential feeding jams.[3] The chamber was sometimes too tight on early models, causing a failure to extract.[4] Later models made by AAA were made to tighter tolerances and usually eliminated many of these problems.

In 1982 St. George split from both Brian Shaw and Jack Allan and moved on and established Armtech Pty Ltd. The company folded in 1983 and the patents held sold to Australian Automatic Arms.

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. They differed in lacking the carrying handle of the Leader and coming with a 30-round magazine.

The Semi-Auto Rifle (SAR) had a 16.25" [413 mm] barrel and synthetic stock.

The Semi-Auto Carbine (SAC) had a 10.5" [266 mm] barrel and synthetic stock.

The Semi-Auto Pistol (SAP) (dubbed the "Tasmanian Devil") was a pistol-gripped stockless version of the SAC. It came with a sling to brace it during firing. Only 700 were imported into the US before being banned in 1994.

The Sporting Purpose 20 (SP-20) had a 20" [508 mm] barrel and wood furniture and was sold as a sport shooting and hunting weapon. The forend was a wooden version of the polymer forend and the butt had a semi-pistol grip with a rubber recoil pad.

Semi-automatic rifles and shotguns were restricted in Australia in 1996 following the Port Arthur massacre (Australia). The Leader was soon after withdrawn from production.

• Armalite AR-18/ArmaLite AR-100
• F88 Austeyr
• M16 rifle
• SA80
• Sterling SAR 87
• List of assault rifles

• YouTube: Forgotten Weapons - Leader Dynamics T2 Mk V rifle
• YouTube: Forgotten Weapons - Forgotten Weapons Interviews Charles St. George

• Security Arms
• Leader Dynamics SAC civilian variant