No arms industries is an island, not especially Singapore.
It won't be pratical to design all of our weapons from scratch when
we can modify existing systems or adapt other ideas to meet our
needs.
As for the myth of the SAR-21 being a TAR-21 copy, I suggest you
check that myth, internally, the SAR-21 is made quite different
along with several patents under the product, including a safety
plate that prevents a piece of metal from entering your brain when
a round cooks off in the bulpup.
There is no need, nor pratical reason why ST should try to make a
rifle design that is unique for the sake of being unique. What
matters is what works, and what provides good egronomics, in which
the ray-gun polymer bulpups have been a solid design to base our
weapon on.
But it is not deniable that these two rifles are similar... it will
probably be better expressed that the SAR-21 is inspired, rather
then a copy of the TAR-21. It can't be called a copy any more then
the Panther tank is a copy of the Soviet T-34.
Of course, we could have traded notes with the Israelis on the
development of our respective rifles, but I don't think that's
something the brass would discuss openly...
