Tag Archives: G-36

Lithuanians are totally down with the G36

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Despite some issues and a controversy over accuracy, the Lithuanian Army is doubling down on HK G36s.

Oberndorf, Germany, August 31, 2016:

Heckler & Koch will supply the Lithuanian armed forces with additional G36 assault rifles and the new 40mm grenade launcher, the HK269. The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence placed the order at the end of August 2016. The contract is for approx. €12.5 million (USD14 million). Delivery will be in 2017.

The G36 has been the Lithuanian Army’s standard assault rifle since 2007. The new order is for a  modified  version  of  the  G36,  which  the  Lithuanian  armed  forces  have  designated  the G36 KA4M1. The weapon configuration that has been ordered corresponds to the experience, observations and recommendations of the users. The modular G36 KA4M1 will be equipped with new buttstocks, slimmer handguards and modified sight rails. The 40mm HK269 that is being introduced at the same time differs from its predecessors in that it is possible to open the barrel on either side, so that the weapon can be used with ease by both left and right-handed users.

It’s not the only update to the country’s military, as Lithuania has received about 200 combat and medium-lift Mercedes-Benz GD vehicles, trucks and other military vehicles from the Netherlands in a $7 million deal to supplement and update the Baltic country’s military fleet.

This comes as NATO has announces a commitment to base four mechanized battalions (drawn from U.S., British, German and Canadian forces) in Eastern Europe backed up by a further 5,000-man Joint Task Force.

But in the spirit of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Lithuania is passing 150 tons of surplus Cold War Soviet ammunition, mainly 7.62x39mm cartridges, to embattled neighbor Ukraine.  Nostrovia!

HK upgrades the MP-5 and the G36 scandal gets interesting…

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Everyone’s favorite SMG from the 1970s onward– the Heckler and Koch MP5– has gotten a face lift. The company unveiled it at AUSA and call it the MP-5 Mid-Life Improvement.

hk hekcler koch mp5a5 mp5 mp-5 mid life

From Soldier Systems: While they haven’t changed the weapon mechanically, they’ve upgrade to a new three position collapsible stock, the Modular Slim Line Handguard and Mounting Rail with STANAG 4694 Profile. All three of these items can be retrofitted to existing MP-5s.

Meanwhile, in other HK news, it seems the whole G36 bruhaha may have been overblown:

hk g36

From DW.com

Led by Green party politician Winfried Nachtwei, the commission questioned 200 soldiers to find out whether they had ever been put in danger, or indeed directly harmed, by the gun’s supposed lack of accuracy.

“The mission-experienced soldiers refuted the classification of the G36 as a glitch-rifle,” the commission said in Berlin on Wednesday. The report had already been leaked to Wednesday’s edition of the “Sächsische Zeitung,” in which one platoon commander who served in Afghanistan in 2009 offered nothing but glowing words about the gun’s accuracy. “We always felt in a superior position with the G36, particularly because we could have an impact on the target with relatively little ammunition,” he told the Nachtwei commission.

The commission was careful, however, not to question the scientific tests that had been conducted on the G36, confining itself only to the observation that they had tested “extreme cases” that were unlikely to occur on the battlefield…

Maybe it just needs a Mid Life Improvement…

 

Germans make early G36 retirement official

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HK G36

Plagued with issues (mainly exceptionally poor accuracy past 100m when operating in temperatures over 80 degrees), the German Bundeswehr is moving to scrap their entire 178,000 rifle stockpile of HK G36s– but are chalking it up to the age of the guns although they were acquired in 1996.

While a contender hasn’t been named, the ‘Heer picked up 1,200 AR-10-ish HK417s last month.

“The G36 was procured with a service life of 20 years in mind, which will be reached in 2016. Furthermore, the current forces’ requirements by far exceed the potential of modifications that could be made to the G36,” said Katrin Suder, German State Secretary for Defence Procurement, as noted by Janes.

Maybe the Germans can donate them to a country or three that doesn’t send a lot of people to the sandbox. Perhaps the Baltics. As long as the Russians don’t invade in August they should be good.