Haenel MK556 is a new Assault Rifle for the Bundeswehr (CONFIRMED)

On Tuesday 14th September 2020, our friends at Spartanat.com informed us thatHaenel MK556 will become a System Sturmgewehr Bundeswehr (Sys StG Bw) and replace the H&K G36! This information was officially confirmed on Tuesday by German Ministry of Defence.

German Bundeswehr was looking for a replacement of Heckler & Koch G36 rifles. The tender for the SSB began on 21st April 2017. The Bundeswehr planned to procure around 120,000 assault rifles and related accessories.

Initialy, there were four contenderes:

  • SIG Sauer with SIG MCX
  • Rheinmetall Defence & Steyr Mannlicher with RS-556 (redesigned Steyr STM556)
  • Heckler & Koch with newly developed HK433 and updated HK416A7
  • C.G. Haenel (Haenel Defence) with MK556

Final companies down-selected were Heckler & Koch and Haenel.

UPDATE #1 – 15.09.2020

German Ministry of Defence has released an official confirmation about C.G. Haenel winning the SSB program w programie SSB (machine translation below).

“System Assault Rifle Bundeswehr”: Winner of the tender

The “assault rifle” award procedure has made another major step forward. From the now completed evaluation of the offers by the registration office of the procurement office in Koblenz is with the company CG Haenel GmbH a tender winner emerged.

On May 14, 2020, the bidders remaining in the System Sturmgewehr Basiswaffe award procedure were asked to submit a Best And Final Offer ( BAFO). The deadline for submitting bids ended on June 22, 2020. The bids received from the bidders have meanwhile been evaluated by the contracting authority.

From this evaluation is the CG Haenel GmbH emerged as the tender winner. The result of the evaluation is not yet legally effective. Inferior bidders always have legal recourse.

The decision of the registry is also subject to parliamentary approval in the context of the € 25 million bill. The documents required for this are currently being prepared, with the aim of a parliamentary referral at the end of 2020.

UPDATE #2 – 15.09.2020

Official statement of Heckler & Koch was released later today (machine translation below)

Statement on the Bundeswehr’s award decision

September 15, 2020

Heckler & Koch was informed today that neither of its two offers should be included in the assault rifle tender of the Bundeswehr.

“Subject to an extensive legal review, we regret this decision”, says CEO Jens Bodo Koch. “At the same time, we are absolutely convinced of the quality of both the HK416 and the HK433. This quality has also been confirmed to us by the Bundeswehr in the context of this tender. We don’t have to shy away from competition with our products.

This is also shown by the order books, which are still very full. “The number of orders from all over the world is higher than we can currently process and the demand remains high,” continues Koch. “Heckler & Koch is and will remain a profitable company.”

For this reason, in the view of the Executive Board, there are no direct consequences for the employees at the Oberndorf location. “After changing the majority shareholder a few weeks ago, we announced that the jobs in Oberndorf were secure. Nothing has changed about that, ”explains CFO Björn Krönert.

The offer submitted by Heckler & Koch for the Bundeswehr’s new assault rifle was based on the company’s extensive experience with orders of this size, on a realistic and conscientious cost calculation for a high-tech product and on the company’s responsibility for maintaining 950 jobs at the site Oberndorf. The triad of tradition, know-how and corporate responsibility has resulted in Heckler & Koch products in demand around the world for more than 70 years.

For the Bundeswehr tender, Heckler & Koch improved the already technically highly developed HK416 again and verifiably met all tender conditions. This rifle has blossomed into the European assault rifle since its launch. It is used in numerous NATO countries, on the one hand as a standard weapon in Norway, France and in the US Marine Corps, and as an assault rifle among many others in the special forces of the USA, Poland and Great Britain. The Bundeswehr Special Forces Command (KSK) and combat swimmers are currently introducing this weapon as the G95K.

“We will now examine the decision in detail from a legal point of view and exhaust all legal possibilities,” says CEO Jens Bodo Koch.

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