HKhas announced it is making good progress in filling a long-running German military contract for general-purpose machine guns.
Developed as the HK 121 by the company, the gas-operated belt-fed 7.62 NATO is type-classified by the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) as the Maschinengewehre No. 5, or MG5.
Adopted in 2013 to replace the legendary MG3 – which was fundamentally just the WWII-era MG42 chambered in 7.62 NATO rather than 8mm Mauser – the German military has a total of 22,672 of the guns on order. The company delivered the 15,000th gun to the Bundeswehr in January.
Interested in how the new gun stacks up against the MG3? Check out the below (German not required):
Developed as the HK 121, the MG5 – seen above in a tripod sustained fire mount – has been slowly fielded with the Germans over the past 12 years, with some 15,000 delivered thus far. HK used the same design in 5.56 NATO for the Bundeswehr’s MG4 light machine gun. (Photos: HK)
HK catalogs at least three variants of the MG5, including the standard 25.2-pound Universal model, top, with its 21.7-inch barrel; the solenoid-fired MG5A1 for use in vehicles and aircraft, center; and the more compact MG5A2 with an 18-inch barrel, bottom. Not shown is the MG5 S, which is used by special forces.
Tiny Estonia, who share a long and increasingly tense border with Russia, uses a force of volunteer unpaid citizens– equipped with their own military arms– to hold the line.
The Estonian Defense League, a militia independent from the government, is made up of over 15,000 members, making it several times larger than the 6,500-member official Estonian Defense Forces.
Stationed in every part of the country the League is ready at a moment’s notice to sally out and repel possible invasion from unnamed neighbors. It’s the largest military force in the region and members vow to put up more of a fight than they did when the Soviet Union took over the county in 1940 and remained for decades.
Earlier this summer Vice News spent some time in-depth with not only the minutemen of the League but also those on both sides of Estonian politics and the above video shows some interesting footage of their training and doctrine.
The firepower shown is impressive, showing some sweet shots of donated German HK G3s and MG3s, old-school Chevy K5s that likely came from the U.S., a sweet 1950s-era Bofors Pvpj 1110 90 mm recoilless rifle, a smoking hot M240/FN Mag, some IMI Galils, a sprinkling of 84mm Carl Gustavs and at least one BTR-80 armored personnel carrier.
It seems Estonia is very down with the concept of civilian use of military-style arms.
Sure, Estonia has no illusions about stopping an all-out Russian incursion, but they just have to slow it down enough to allow fellow NATO members to apply action or rush reinforcements to the region and they plan to do so by putting a rifle behind every blade of grass.
“If Russia knows that attacking Estonia is not a walk in the park, maybe Russia will think twice,” says a commander.
Speaking of which, check out a recent NATO exercise with the League as part of Operation Hurricane in the video below.
With so much firepower at the hands of your everyday civilian, its hard to sell the prospect of being a member of the League because you want to hunt ducks.
But then again, back here in the states we know that Washington didn’t cross the Delaware to get to a duck blind.
