Spain’s oldest law enforcement agency, the Guardia Civil, have agreed a pair of contracts to procure new HK G36s and MP5s. Spain have ordered 425 5.56x45mm G36K carbines at a cost of 699,380 Euros or $790,372, giving a unit price of just under $1,540 per carbine. The carbines will ship with a 1.5x optic, 2 magazines, sling, cleaning kit and manual.

A second smaller contract ordering 120 MP5s has also been agreed. The contract is reported to be worth 254,100 Euros or just over $287,000. This put the unit price of the new MP5 A5s at 1,750 Euros or $1,977 each. The MP5 A5s will ship with two 30 round magazines, a sling, cleaning kit and manual. The contracts were awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Defence’s Directorate-General for Economic Affairs. Both the MP5 and the G36s are already standard issue to Guardia Civil units, alongside older CETME rifles. The new carbines and submachine guns will be issued alongside the Guardia Civil’s sidearm, the Heckler & Koch USP Compact.

Guardia Civil officers of the Unidad de Acción Rápida stacking up during a training exercise c.2016. They’re armed with a mixture of Heckler & Koch small arms including MP5s and 7.62x51mm HK417s (with their front sights still folded), out of frame are officers armed with G36Ks and a belt-fed MG4 (Guardia Civil)

Back in April, we reported that some units of Spain’s Guardia Civil were being re-issued old CETME Model C’s dating from the 1960s. Back in April several Guardia Civil units in Northern Spain were issued 7.62x51mm Model Cs to replace their 5.56x45mm CETME Model LCs. The Union de Guardia Civiles expressed ‘surprise and outrage’ arguing that they felt the “35 years of service [given by the Model LCs] are already more than enough to start thinking about replacing them.”

It remains to be seen which units will receive the new G36s and MP5s. Heckler & Koch also recently won another significant European police contract, with the HK416 selected by Hessian state police as their new ‘middle distance’ rifle, with around 2,000 rifles ordered.