The HK416 A7: German special operations units select new rifle

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North_Sylva

North_Sylva

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The new year will bring a new rifle to Germany’s elite soldiers. In the upcoming months, the HK416 A7, which the Germans have designated the G95K, will be issued to the soldiers of the Kommando Spezialkrafte (KSK) and sailors of the Kommando Spezialkrafte Marine (KSM). The standing order is for less than 2,000 new rifles, to be fulfilled by the end of 2019.

The rifle will come with a 14.5-inch barrel, shoot the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge, and be fitted with a 45-degree safety. The German army has selected EOTech to provide the optics; the rifles will be equipped with the EOTech EXPS3-0 holographic weapon sight and G33 magnifier.

In the summer of 2018, the German army traveled to the U.S. to field test the new rifle. German special operators went to the Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) in Arizona and put the G95K through a series of arduous tests to determine its suitability. According to Luis Arroyo, chief of YPG’s Training and Exercise Management Office (TEMO), the G95K had already passed all the technical evaluations, but further testing would ensure user input would be relayed back to the manufacturer. He said it was of paramount importance that the rifle’s manufacturer know what the operators think of the weapon and its performance under operational conditions, as well as how it could be improved.

Dr. Karl-Heinz Rippert, chief of optronics in the lasers and acoustics branch of the German Ministry of Defense, stated that YPG offered ideal testing conditions for the G95K. In “the Yuma Proving Ground we have special conditions of sand and dust,” said the German official, adding that “the landscape profile is similar to Afghanistan. The result we achieve should have some relevance to our missions, and the main mission in recent years was in Afghanistan.”

The YPG offers the U.S. military, as well as foreign allies and partners, the opportunity to field test military equipment under the most rigorous environmental conditions.

The KSK is Germany’s premier counterterrorism unit. It is a fairly new outfit, having been established in 1996, but already has a great deal of combat experience from conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali, Libya, and other places around the globe. The KSK was modeled after the British Special Air Service (SAS) and America’s Delta Force. Much like the KSK, the KSM is the premier special operations unit of the German Navy. Established in the 1950s, the KSM specializes in maritime counterterrorism and all maritime special operations missions.
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2,000 sights ain't a big win for EOTech. They sell more at higher prices through MidwayUSA and Brownells. Even at retail prices, the total value of the contract would be 10% of the $25 million settlement they reached with the US about thermal drift.
 
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FyreFighter said:
2,000 sights ain't a big win for EOTech. They sell more at higher prices through MidwayUSA and Brownells. Even at retail prices, the total value of the contract would be 10% of the $25 million settlement they reached with the US about thermal drift.
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I was thinking more along the lines of a military trusting their products, no so much the sale.
 
I am surprised they chose an eotech instead of going with the euro option aimpoint. The g28 has a s&b aimpoint combo on it.
 
FyreFighter said:
The issues may have been solved, but a 25 million dollar fine is going to sting for a while :)
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True, but aren't they a subsidiary of Ratheon? I dont know if a "paltry" 25 million stung too badly....they were probably more worried about the damage to their reputation.

*EDIT* My bad, Eotech is owned by L-3 Communications, who also owns some parts of ratheon? Weird.
 
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I would love to see the reviews of these military or police trials to see how a particular model won out over the competition. The common theme always seems to be "how did that POS possibly win out over everything else ". Probably not the case here but the Sig 516 on paper would seem equal or superior. And of course according to you tube . LOL. But there is a case to be made since the designer of the 416 was hired be Sig to design the 516 and supposedly cured some of the weak points of the 416. I'll be honest, I have no hands on experience with either and think Nutfancy is a dork.
 
MustangFrank said:
I would love to see the reviews of these military or police trials to see how a particular model won out over the competition. The common theme always seems to be "how did that POS possibly win out over everything else ". Probably not the case here but the Sig 516 on paper would seem equal or superior. And of course according to you tube . LOL. But there is a case to be made since the designer of the 416 was hired be Sig to design the 516 and supposedly cured some of the weak points of the 416. I'll be honest, I have no hands on experience with either and think Nutfancy is a dork.
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I do enjoy Nutnfancy videos quite alot lol

Out of curiosity, what weak points are you referring to? I hadn't heard anything on this other than the usual unending Piston vs DI debate.
 
The other contender to the German bid is the Haenel GmbH rifle, which is basically a HK416 minus all the refinements by HK over the last 15 years- almost like a like a Gen 1 HK416 from the early 2000 on the cheap. But why? Because there is a cost component to the overall scoring of the submission. Let's put it this way, the KSK gets the HK416 because money is not so much of a problem. The german army knows HK416 is what they want, but it is not what they are allowed to pay. Hence the cheaper 416 clones sneaked into the tendering process.

Now back to SIG 516 - it is a lower cost version of the HK416. It changes the gas system so it can do away the hand guard and receiver interface that allows return to zero of all the gadget on the handguard. Think about the tolerance needed amongst the barrel nut, receiver and handguard needed for the 416 system. Also look at details like how the gas block is aligned in the HK vs SIG, which was later copied by Colt Canada and Barrette . Not that SIG is not working, but it is basically using all the existing AR technologies and techniques.

The SIG 516 has some pretty good sale considering what SIG is submitting to all these tenders - the biggest win for SG516 is the Mexican Marine. There are over 30 battalions + 2 Quick Reason Brigades in the Mexican Naval Infantry so there are almost 10,000 weapons there. The problem is not so much SG 516 is a bad weapon, but SIG Sauer is submitting MCX to tenders instead of SG 516, and they lost. This is something to do with miscalculations in submitting the right products ( balance of cost and performance ) to the right tenders. There are also political considerations - HK and German government's issue over guns turning up in Mexico.....and some places like hong kong ( which was a British colony before but now it is part of China ) cannot get HK to sell them weapons, so they bought SIG 516.

It appears to me, when money is not the biggest factory, HK416 wins ( French and Norway) When money has higher weighting in the overall scores of the submissions, HK lost. ( Estonia, New Zealand ) If SIG submits SG516 ( that is cheaper than MCX), it could have beat out LMT in the Estonia tender by scoring more points in cost.

The bottom line, it has a lot to do with the scoring system in the tender, and the decision of the bidding team to pick the right product to submit. In other times, they already know what they want so they just write the RFB to make sure their preference is the only product that will meet the criteria.



MustangFrank said:
Probably not the case here but the Sig 516 on paper would seem equal or superior. And of course according to you tube . LOL. But there is a case to be made since the designer of the 416 was hired be Sig to design the 516 and supposedly cured some of the weak points of the 416. I'll be honest, I have no hands on experience with either and think Nutfancy is a dork.
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I wouldn't write off NutnFancy. Yes he sells to his base, but he isnt really profiting externally from it other than people who appreciate his gear and gun reviews donating to him on patreon.

I'll just throw up the MCX review he did as an example of him not being afraid to report real world updates. ( positive or negative) It was initially extremely positive. Good reliability, extremely accurate. He then uploaded an update where the rifle actually failed and jammed up while they were filming. (I believe one of the recoil spring guides broke, which totally took it out of action.)
I trust him to be alot more unbiased than most. I also appreciate his down to earth approach to need vs. Want, realistic use and applications etc.
 
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