Schmidt & Bender has won the Bundeswehr Tender for 368 units of Schmidt & Bender’s 1-8×24 PM II ShortDot Dual CC riflescope.
My understanding (Source) is that these will be mounted on the HK G28.
The advantage of the 1-8×24 with CC is that it offers a combination of a reflex sight with the strengths of a conventional riflescope. CC stands for Close Combat, and in this mode the scope is parallax-free to less than 10m. When you magnify it beyond 1.1x it’s parallax-free at 100 m. The dot is in the 2:nd focal plane, so it stays the same.
This sight isn’t new, but I find it interesting that the German Bundeswehr has chosen it instead of a traditional fixed scope. It just shows that Armies, or at least special parts of an army typically known as Special Forces of some kind, are looking and feel confident enough to use these solutions.
It’s perhaps no coincidence that the US SOCOM are looking at variable optics as well?
Below: The S&B is available in three different colors: Black, RAL8000 and PANTONE 7504.
As a competition shooter I’ve been using similar solution from Zeiss and Swarovski, with the power of either 1-6x or 1-8x usually, with a Reflex side on the side. I haven’t used the S&B 1-8x CC, but other variants of their 1-8, and I find that the eyebox is pretty unforgiving making it less ideal for sports shooting.
Schmidt & Bender founded in Germany in 1957 is still a family-run company.
Their description of the scope is as follow:
With the new version of the 1-8×24 PM II ShortDot Dual CC Schmidt & Bender present anonther concept of his 8 time magnification riflescopes. In contrast to the 1-8×24 PM II ShortDot Dual CC CC with a reticle and FlashDot in the 2nd focal plane the new version of the 1-8×24 PM II ShortDot Dual CC has a FlashDot in the 2nd focal plane and an illuminable reticle at the 1st focal plane. This combines the advantage of both a reflex sight and a riflescope, which is an ideal solution for mobile use in urban terrain from short to medium distances. The FlashDot allows in combination with the CC Mode (Close Combat Mode) the usage as a reflex sight for short distances. In this mode the riflescope has a true 1 time magnification and is parallax free to 7m. By increasing the magnification above the CC Mode the riflescope is parallax free to 100m. Since the FlashDot is located in the 2nd focal plane the size of the dot stays constant. Hereby three different illumination increments are eligible. At higher magnifications the Mildot reticle in the 1st focal plane can be used. Thus a opportunity for a direct measurement of target and object sizes is enabled. With a maximum magnification of 8 the 1-8×24 PM II ShortDot Dual CC is also an ideal riflescope for identification purposes and operations up to medium distances. Hereby the illumination of the reticle can be regulated in 8 different increments, whereof three are optimized for the usage with a night vision.
With a weight of just 639g, a length of 293mm and a 30mm main tube diameter the 1-8×24 PM II ShortDot Dual CC is compact 2 in 1 system. Thereby it has a field of view between 35.3m and 4.9m at 100m. The elevation and windage turrets are lockable to protect the zero position against unintentional adjustment. Additionally to the black version of the riflescope it is also in camouflage colors RAL8000 and PANTONE 7504 available.
It would be interesting to know which mount they chose.