Obsolete equipment and organisational differences with the regular army became some of the earliest challenges that the battalion and other territorials contended with in France. The Scottish employed the long version of the Lee–Enfield (MLE) rifle, which had been superseded by the SMLE (Short Magazine Lee–Enfield) in the Regular Army. Unsuited to newer ammunition and the conditions of the Western Front, the 10th's MLEs began to be phased out by the SMLE in early 1915—a process that would not be entirely complete until 1916. Structurally different from their regular counterparts, territorial battalions were reorganised early in the war to conform with the regulars. Unlike the Regular Army, which had adopted a four-company system in 1913, territorial battalions were still organised into eight companies. When the system was extended to the Liverpool Scottish, the battalion designated its consolidated companies "V", "X, "Y", and "Z". This contrasted with the more conventional "A" to "D" or "1" to "4"—considered by the battalion to be potentially confusing.