The Sterling is a British 9x19mm Parabellum submachine gun. Developed in 1944, it was intended to replace the Sten but didn’t do so until 1953. With a successful and reliable design, it remained standard issue with the British Army until 1994, when it was replaced by the L85A1 assault rifle.
Constructed entirely of steel and plastic, the Sterling has a shoulder stock that folds underneath the weapon.Even though the Sterling contains the conventional blowback design firing from an open bolt, there are some unusual features like the helical grooves on the surface of the bolt designed to remove dirt and fouling from the inside of the receiver to increase reliability. The Star Wars films even used the Sterling as Stormtrooper blaster rifles with few cosmetic alterations.
