Austria’s Steyr Arms have announced they have been awarded a contract to supply elements of the German armed forces with their GL 40. Steyr’s 40mm grenade launcher can be mounted under the barrel of a service rifle or it can be mounted on a Steyr-designed [Read More…]
The Haenel MK556, despite having been rejected by the Bundeswehr following a patent infringement, has recently been seen put to use training Ukrainian special forces operators. The 5.56x45mm short-stroke piston carbines were once poised to replace the German [Read More…]
Welcome to Friday Night Lights where I showcase and review night vision and thermal-related items. I suspect the featured image of today’s article may have intrigued you to check out these old night vision binoculars. The Fero D-51 is a German-made night vision [Read More…]
In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves visits Haenel at EnforceTac to discuss their RS8/RS9 line of sniper rifles, famously used by German special forces as the G29. According to Haenel’s webpage: With RS8 / RS9, C.G. Haenel from Suhl offers a sniper rifle system specially developed for police [Read More…]
Last week we reported that the German government had allotted funds for the Bundeswehr’s procurement of its new rifle – the G95A1. Heckler & Koch have now released a statement and some photographs of the Bundeswehr’s new rifles. The new The [Read More…]
On 14 December the German government’s Budget and Defense Committees convened and the initial funds for the procurement of the German Army’s next service rifle were granted. This clears the way for the initial procurement of the HK416A8 as the G95A1. [Read More…]
The Bundeswehr launched their program to select a new service rifle to replace the G36 in the spring of 2017, since then there has been a hard-fought selection process followed by court proceedings but it appears there may finally be an outcome. Following a ruling by [Read More…]
Are you a good skier? Are you a good skier and a good shooter? If not, you will find plenty of inspiration in today’s Photo Of The Day where we have pictures of German Bundeswehr soldiers skiing and shooting. I would advise you to start with a normal rifle or [Read More…]
We have been publishing the Photo Of The Day for years. Our focus is on firearms, sometimes a new product, a classic or in the hands of soldiers or sports shooters. Sometimes the pictures work just like pieces of art, like when the night is painted in bullet traces. The [Read More…]
Photo Of The Day: The German Bundeswehr and the Austrian Bundesheer training together in AUTDEUMIL. One rarely sees the Steyr AUG and Heckler & Koch G36 together like this, but above is an excellent exception. Which one would you prefer and why? We also have Bravo [Read More…]
Despite the ongoing dispute between Heckler & Koch and Haenel which has ground the Bundeswehr’s G36 replacement program to a halt the next optic to be mounted on Germany’s future service rifle has been selected. The Bundeswehr began their search for a [Read More…]
The long-running dispute between Heckler & Koch and Haenel enters the courtroom this week with the patent dispute case currently being heard at the Düsseldorf Regional Court. We first reported on the problems Germany was having in their efforts to replace the HK [Read More…]
Photo Of The Day, or the Heckler & Koch of the day, is the G95K. Here seen with German Special Forces KSK and a quick burst of 5.56mm NATO in the air. The Heckler & Koch G95K (HK416) has a barrel length of 14.5″. Optics are provided by EOTech. Watching the [Read More…]
Photo Of The Day: We have a close-up of the Scharfschützengewehr (Sniper Rifle) G22A2 with the Steiner M5Xi 5-25×56 riflescope. Accuracy International Ltd. (AI) won the tender to upgrade the existing G22 sniper rifles of the German Armed Forces. The German Army [Read More…]
When we think of the Heckler & Koch G36, we might immediately think of the issues with heat dissipation which saw the Bundeswehr launch its (still) ongoing search for a new service rifle. For some time there have been murmurings that Steyr were working on an [Read More…]
We visit Freundeskreis Panzerlehrbrigade 9 in Germany in our Photo Of The Day. Above you can spot a Rheinmetall MG 3 machine gun and a Heckler & Koch G36 rifle. While a machine gun may be noisy, it’s nothing compared to the 30 mm automatic cannon on the Puma [Read More…]
Germany’s rifle debacle continues with the German government looking set to award the Bundeswehr rifle contract to the only other contender – Heckler & Koch. With Haenel disqualified after infringements of Heckler and Koch’s patents (for the magazine [Read More…]
FN Herstal has recently been commissioned by The German Bundeswehr to supply heavy machine guns for their fleet of NH90 helicopters. The NH Industries NH90 is a medium, twin-engined helicopter for multi-role military missions, and has seen combat in Mali, for instance. [Read More…]
We have been following the development of the Bundeswehr’s ongoing efforts to procure a rifle for some time, now it has emerged that C.G. Haenel’s headquarters in Suhl have been visited by investigators on the orders of the Dusseldorf Regional Court. [Read More…]
Do you love photography? Without it, TFB, and TFBTV, would not be the same. We’ve been running our very special Photo Of The Day for years, bringing great photos from around the world and the world of firearms onto the doorstep of the screen you’re looking at [Read More…]
The German government has withdrawn their order for 120,000 Haenel MK556 rifles. Last month C.G. Haenel were awarded a major contract to replace the Bundeswehr’s G36 service rifle. The Haenel MK556 was selected over the Heckler & Koch HK416 and HK433. Heckler [Read More…]
On 14th September it emerged that C.G. Haenel’s MK556 had been selected by the German Bundeswehr, beating the entries from Heckler & Koch to replace the G36 as the Bundeswehr’s service rifle. A day later the German Ministry of Defence confirmed that [Read More…]
The German Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) have revealed further details on the tender as well as the future timeline for the procurement of the Bundeswehr’s next service rifle system. Almost a year ago, in November 2019, the benchmark testing between the [Read More…]
Following on from the surprising news of yesterday, that C.G. Haenel MK556 rifle had won the German Army tender to replace the Heckler & Koch G36, confirmation has now been officially announced. Below you can find the official Press Release and communication from [Read More…]
After almost six decades with Heckler & Koch, the German Bundeswehr appears to have selected a new supplier for its assault rifle. TFB has followed the process closely and while the decision had been delayed we knew that a decision from the was due this autumn. We [Read More…]
Photo Of The Day – We take a look at the latest upgrades for the German standard issue rifle G36. The 3rd company of the Jägerbataillon 91, based in Rotenburg (Germany), is currently being equipped with the “IdZ eS” equipment. The abbreviation [Read More…]
It probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone that the decision on which supplier that will deliver the next standard assault rifle for the German Army has reportedly been delayed once again. According to several German news outlets the program has once again [Read More…]
A classic like the MG3 machine gun should be pronounced in its original language, don’t you think? Just listen to the words: Das Maschinengewehr: “The machine rifle”. This is the topic for Today’s Photo here at TFB, and since its introduction in [Read More…]
The German Bundeswehr (German Army) is going to equip more vehicles with the Heckler & Koch GMW (GranatMaschinenWaffe) in the common NATO caliber 40 x 53 mm. The weapon is perhaps more known, as on H&Ks own homepage, as the GMG which you can study more in detail [Read More…]
Since the late 1990s, the Heckler & Koch G36 is the standard rifle of the German Bundeswehr. Already in the 2nd quarter of 2017 it was made official that the Bundeswehr were going to procure roughly 120 000 assault rifles with accessories, to replace the G36. In [Read More…]
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