Haenel MK 556 to replace the Heckler & Koch G36 in German service!
The love story between the German Bundeswehr and famed gunmaker Heckler & Koch comes to an end: the MK 556 assault rifle, an AR-15 derivative manufactured by Haenel Defence, has been selected to replace the famous yet controversial G36
Another Country chooses an AR platform as its next service rifle: Germany ditches the Heckler & Koch G36 in favor of the MK 556, a piston-driven platform manufactured by the Defence division of C.G. Haenel of Thuringia!
The news was broken tonight in Europe by German press agency DPA, and was soon relaunched by numerous specialized outlets both in Germany and abroad: the era of the Heckler & Koch G36 as the service rifle for the German Armed Forces seems to have come to an end as the Haenel MK 556 has been selected as the winner of the long-running replacement trials.
The MK 556 is a short-stroke piston-driven AR-15 variant manufactured in the German Land of Thuringia by C.G. Haenel, a company owned by the Tawazun Holding of the United Arab Emirates via the Merkel group. It is available in four barrel lengths, ranging between 10,5“ / 266mm and 16“ / 408mm, and either with a Picatinny quad rail handguard or a free-float handguard with Keymod mounting points, both removable without tools. Featuring fully ambidextrous controls – a 45-degree rather than AR-pattern selector – the MK556 weighs in at 3,6 kilograms (7.9 lbs) in its 16" barrel variant.
Haenel MK 556 assault rifle, 14.5" barrel variant with Picatinny railed handguard – right side
Haenel MK 556 assault rifle, 14.5" barrel variant with Picatinny railed handguard – left side
The Haenel MK 556 replaces the G36, whose accuracy and reliability reportedly suffered from extensive use in high temperatures
As we reported three years ago, trials to replace the G36 were long-running in Germany, and just one year short of our report, the competition had narrowed down to two entries – the Haenel MK 556 and the Heckler & Koch HK433. The adoption of the MK 556 in Germany once again affirms the status of the AR-15 as the quintessential modern service rifle.
Other AR-type rifles that competed to the trials included models manufactured by LMT in the United States; the Steyr-Mannlicher STM556, entered as the Rheinmetall-Steyr RS-556; and the Heckler & Koch HK-416 A7, which was subsequently withdrawn from the competition and adopted by the German Special Forces (KSK) as the G95 rifle. Prominent competitors such as SIG Sauer withdrew before the final phases.
Unexpected loser: the German Armed Forces passed on on the last-gen Heckler & Koch HK433
Another AR variant, the Heckler & Koch HK-416 A7, was withdrawn from the competition before the final stages but was subsequently adopted as the new service rifle of the German Special Forces, receiving the military denomination of G95
So, is the sixty-plus years old relationship between Heckler & Koch and the Bundeswehr really come to an end? Not according to all observers.
While the original order was for 120.000 rifles – net worth: approximately 250 million Euro, circa 296 million US dollars, not counting an undisclosed amount of accessories – the results of the trial are, as reported by the German website Soldat & Technik, still pending approval by the German Ministry of Defense, and are still subject to possible judicial review as well as to any appeal that the losing competitors may file.
It is thus left to see whether or not players like Heckler & Koch will accept to be left out of a market that they dominated for more than half a century, and more importantly, if there really is a political interest right now in changing the Bundeswehr's service rifle. While reportedly German soldiers are still happy with their G36 after all, the long dragging of the replacement trials – whose final stages were delayed multiple times in the past three years – would seem to indicate otherwise.