What appears to be one of the first looks at members of the German armed forces with new 5.56x45mm Heckler & Koch HK416 A8 rifles, also known as G95A1s, has come from an unexpected source: the U.S. Army. With help from the service, the Germans have been testing the guns in very hot and humid conditions at a facility in Panama, as well as in the Arizona desert. This follows reports earlier this year that authorities in Germany watered down various requirements, including temperature-related ones, before selecting the HK416 A8 as the country’s new standard service rifle nearly two years ago.
The U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) released a picture of German personnel with G95-series rifles at the site in Panama yesterday. The Germans also brought Accuracy International G22A2 and C.G. Haenel G29 sniper rifles and Heckler & Koch 5.56x45mm MG4 and 7.62x51mm MG5 machine guns, as well as new night vision goggles, to test there, according to YPG. Additional German small arms testing was carried out at YPG proper in Arizona.
“The Bundeswehr, the armed forces of Germany, has tested a variety of equipment at YPG and its constituent test centers in the past decade, from the PzH 2000 155mm [self-propelled] howitzer to the MG 5 machine gun and G29 sniper rifle,” according to the YPG release. “This year, the Bundeswehr returned to test both variants of its recently adopted G95 assault rifle in the desert of Yuma, followed by testing at a Panamanian facility frequently utilized by U.S. Army Tropic Regions Test Center (TRTC). The G95 is based on Heckler and Koch’s HK416A8.”
In December 2022, the German Federal Ministry of Defense announced that funding had formally been approved for the acquisition of its new Bundeswehr Assault Rifle System, or System Sturmgewehr Bundeswehr, based around the HK416 A8. In addition to the G95A1 with its 16.5-inch barrel, the new ‘system’ also includes a shorter 14-inch barrelled variant designated as the G95KA1. In 2022, the hope had been that German forces would start getting the new rifles by the end of this year and it is unclear to what extent this may have begun happening already. It’s worth noting here that Germany’s special operations community has already been armed with versions of the HK416 A7, designated as G95s, for years now.
Interestingly, the picture from the testing in Panama shows G95s with two different types of handguards. One appears to use the increasingly popular M-LOK accessory attachment system from Magpul in the United States, while the other looks to feature Heckler & Koch’s proprietary HKey system. Both also have U.S.-standard Picatinny attachment rails. Pictures of HK416 A8s that Heckler & Koch has put out previously in relation to the Bundeswehr Assault Rifle System deal have all shown HKey handguards.
The HKey handguard also looks to be similar, if not identical to ones found on German special operations G95s, as seen in the video below.
The rifles seen in the picture from Panama also have ELCAN SpecterDR 1-4x adjustable optical sights, which the Germans separately announced in 2021 would be standard on all G95A1s and G95KA1s. One of the rifles is also seen with an additional thermal imager fitted. Aiming lasers and lights are visible on a number of the guns, as well.
The standard optics arrangement on existing G95s in service with Germany’s special operations forces is a non-magnifying EOTech EXPS3 holographic sight paired with a G33 1-3x magnifier from the same company on a mount that allows it to be flipped out of the way when it is not in use.
The different handguards do raise the question of whether all the guns seen at the site in Panama are actually A1 G95 types or if the final standard service rifle configuration is still being finalized. Whether or not the configuration differences are related to reported issues uncovered in previous testing is unknown.
In January, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that testing requirements for the Bundeswehr Assault Rifle System had been significantly changed in late 2022, ostensibly to help speed up the process of fielding the new G95A1s and G95KA1s. This involved allowing Heckler & Koch to use civilian rather than military-standard ammunition in testing and for that testing to occur under more controlled laboratory conditions, according to a classified report the outlet said it had obtained. No extreme hot or cold weather testing was reportedly conducted.
“Current testing by the army in laboratory conditions shows that the weapon doesn’t meet army standards when loaded with combat ammunition,” the report said, according to a subsequent story from the Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom. “The army requires an assault rifle that is sufficiently accurate under real conditions with its combat ammunition … [but the German Defense Ministry] can no longer ensure this… due to a modified contract with the weapon manufacturer.”
This is all eerily reminiscent of problems that the existing G36-series rifles in German service suffered after their adoption in the 1990s. Loss of accuracy in hot weather environments, as well as in the event of sudden rapid temperature changes, have been the most notable reported issues, which authorities in Germany have consistently downplayed. The G95A1 and G95KA1 are now in line to replace the G36.
Per Der Spiegel, German authorities downplayed the potential issues arising from limited initial testing of the G95A1 citing the increasingly widespread use of HK416 variants globally, including with the U.S. Marine Corps and American special operations units, without any serious reported problems. The HK416 family has also been increasingly entering the public consciousness, especially since members of SEAL Team Six carried them on the raid that led to the death of Al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden in 2011.
The HK416 at its core is a derivative of the U.S. AR-15/M16 family, but uses a gas-piston operating system rather than the direct impingement one found on its parent design. In a direct impingement system, propellant gas is siphoned off from the barrel during firing and funneled directly into the internal action of the gun. A gas piston system keeps the gas, and any particulate matter within it, away from the gun’s main working components, reducing the chance of fouling. This can offer advantages when it comes to ease of maintenance and overall reliability.
YPG’s press release makes no mention of any of the reported issues surrounding the Bundeswehr Assault Rifle System, but sending G95-series rifles to Arizona and Panama would be in line with German government efforts to address the reported testing deficiencies, especially when it comes to very hot conditions.
“The test area was exactly what we were looking for,” Germany Sgt. Maj. Michael Diehl, said in a statement in the U.S. Army release. “We had no problems with the testing of the weapons.”
“We go a lot of times to Almeria in Spain, but it is very hot there for just two or three weeks of the year and you can’t shoot tracer ammunition there,” Sgt. Maj. Ernest Tretow, another member of the Bundeswehr in the testing, also said. “Here, everything was possible.”
Germany’s effort to adopt a new standard service rifle had already been mired in controversy with the cancellation of an initial deal with C.G. Haenel for MK556 rifles in 2020. Around that time allegations emerged that the MK556, and the preceding CR223 design on which it was based, was so similar to the HK416 that it actually infringed on Heckler & Koch’s patents. German authorities subsequently said the decision was based on a revised analysis of the company’s offer, which was subsequently deemed to be “economically inferior.” No direct mention was made of the patent issues, which Heckler & Koch has since had success litigating in court, as being a factor.
All of this now comes amid a broader push to revitalize and modernize Germany’s armed forces driven in large part by the new geopolitical environment in Europe that has emerged since Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine.
“We must be ready for war by 2029,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told members of the lower house of the country’s parliament, or Bundestag, in June. “We must provide deterrence to prevent it from coming to the worst.”
The news of testing in Panama, as well as Arizona, shows Germany is still pushing ahead with its Bundeswehr Assault Rifle System plans, despite the reported issues.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com