hold provides greater control of the weapon, so the right hand can intermittently be used for other tasks. A semi-circular protrusion on the right-hand side of the weapon, approximately two inches from the muzzle, serves to prevent the supporting hand from moving too far forward and over the muzzle. Manufacture A total of over 400,000 Sterlings was manufactured between 1953 and 1988. Sterling built them at their factory in Dagenham for the British armed forces and for overseas sales, while Liverpool's Royal Ordnance Factory Fazakerley constructed them exclusively for the British military. Production ceased in 1988 with the closing of Sterling Armaments by British Aerospace/Royal Ordnance. Fazakerley no longer makes full weapons, but still manufactures spare parts for certified end users. Sterling produced its own magazines, with those intended for British military use being marked "L1A1". L1A2 magazines were variously manufactured by Fazakerley, Royal Laboratories Woolwich, Rolls Razor, and Mettoy; out of the 1,723,623 magazines contracted for, Mettoy was to produce 227,262, Rolls Razor was to produce 309,800, and the remaining 1.2 million were produced by Fazakerley and Woolwich. A Chilean variant was made by FAMAE as the PAF submachine gun but was different externally as it had a shorter receiver lacking the barrel shroud. Canada also manufactured a variant under licence, called the Submachine Gun 9 mm C1 made by Canadian Arsenals Limited. It is made from stamped metal instead of cast metal and is capable of handling a C1 bayonet, which is only used during public exhibition events and not for combat operations. A similar weapon, the Sub-Machine Gun Carbine 9 mm 1A1, was manufactured under licence by the Indian Ordnance Factory at Kanpur beginning in 1963, along with a Sub-Machine Gun Carbine 9 mm 2A1, manufactured beginning in 1977. As of 2012, it has been reported that at least 5,000 of these SMGs were made in India. Variants British Armed Forces Unassigned: Patchett Machine Carbine Mark 1 (trials commenced in 1944) Unassigned: Patchett Machine Carbine Mark 1 & Folding Bayonet (same as above but with folding bayonet, never accepted) L2A1: (Patchett Machine Carbine Mark 2) Adopted in 1953. L2A2: (Sterling Mark 3) Adopted in 1955. L2A3: (Sterling Mark 4) Adopted in 1956. Last regular version in service with the British Army, Royal Marines and RAF Regiment. L34A1: Suppressed version (Sterling-Patchett Mark 5). L49A1: Drill purpose version converted from unserviceable L2A3s. There were also a number of unserviceable