The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence has announced that more Heckler & Koch G36 rifles are set to be procured with a new contract agreed. The number of rifles to be procured by Lithuania hasn’t been announced but the contract is worth 19 million Euros (or $22 million). Both the Lithuanian Army and Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces use the G36 with the Army using the G36KA4M1 variant of the rifle which has a handguard with HKey slots and a top rail for optic mounting.
Lithuanian Army News @ TFB:
- Lithuanian Armed Forces to Field the Heckler & Koch SFP9
- Lithuania Orders More HK G36s
- Accuracy International AXMC sniper rifles chosen by Lithuania
- Lithuania Resumes Buying G36s, Finds No Flaw in Guns
- Lithuania Adopts FN SCAR-H Precision Rifle (7.62mm)
Lithuania adopted the G36 in 2007, with further orders for rifles made in 2016 and 2018. Heckler & Koch have not yet commented on the new contract but the last major order for rifles from Lithuania came in October 2018 and was worth $12.6 million.
Lithuania’s G36s are also a target for Steyr’s new G62 initiative which looks to provide upgrades to the rifles’ furniture and receiver. More on that here.
The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence made the announcement below:
On September 30 the Defence Materiel Agency under the Ministry of National Defence signed a contract with Germany’s Heckler & Koch GmbH on procurement of additional amount of G-36 assault rifles.
“We continue our efforts to equip the Lithuanian Armed Forces with up-to-date and credible weaponry, technical and tactical parameters of the G-36 meet the Lithuanian Armed Forces requirements and ensure the weapon will be reliable across different tactical conditions, to serve national and international military operations needs,” says Minister of National Defence Arvydas Anušauskas.
The new batch of assault rifles will be made for and delivered to the Lithuanian Armed Forces in 2022-2023. Its total value is approx. EUR 19 million (without VAT). The weapons are bought to maintain the existing capabilities of the Lithuanian Armed Forces and to continue developing new, as well as to replace obsolete and no longer used rifle weaponry systems.
Currently the main weapon used by Lithuanian Armed Forces riflemen is 5.56 mm x 45 mm G-36 assault rifle manufactured by Heckler & Koch GmbH.