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.

Photo Of The Day: Soldier from His Majesty The King’s Guard standing in front of the Storting, the Norwegian Parlament, during the opening of the 166:th Storting. They are carrying the Heckler & Koch HK416N with Aimpoint sights, made for Norway. It seems they are using a shorter magazine than the regular army, and it looks like the outside of the barrel most likely got more cleaning than the inside.

A couple of weeks ago Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc. announced that they had completed the first shipment of rifles to the US Army. The shipment of MRAD Mk22 MOD 0 rifles is the first of a series which will fulfil a $50 million five-year contract signed back in early 2021. The contract will see just short of 3,000 MRADs procured as part of the US Army Precision Sniper Rifle program.

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 new optic back in April 2018. Leonardo has been selected to supply the Bundeswehr with over 100,000 ELCAN Specter DR 1-4x sights.

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 G36 back in October 2018. Since then we’ve seen claim and counter claim made by the two companies. Haenel’s MK556 was initially selected before a claim of patent infringement from Heckler & Koch flipped Bundeswehr’s decision.

Nothing to do? Each day you are welcome to TFB’s selection of photo highlights. If you’re lucky you may learn something on the way. Today’s Photo Of The Day includes soldiers from the French Foreign Legion with their short Heckler & Koch HK416 rifles in the jungle.

Welcome to TFB’s Photo Of The Day, our daily article series dedicated to the most unique and rare pictures. Above you have a German soldier with the Heckler & Koch G36 with a Beta C-Mag. The C-Mag is a 100-round capacity double drum magazine made by the Beta Company.

If there was a French version of the movie Apocalypse Now (1979), perhaps this would be one of the scenes. I guess the action of the FAMAS wouldn’t rock any kind of canoe, but I wonder how much the recoil of that machine gun would make the boat go in the opposite direction? In this Photo Of The Day, we can see the machine guns of France in action.

Of all the pictures we have featured in our Photo Of The Day since 2014, this has got to be one of the oddest. I know sniper challenges are supposed to be a challenge, but this certainly takes the price. If I’m correct, we have a sniper and a spotter, with the PSG90B sniper rifle (AI AW) and the spotting scope supported by tripods on the bottom of the lake. The spotter has an empty Ak5 (FN FNC) on his back. Since they’re wearing hearing protection I think this is a photo taken in the heat of the action, during the competition, and not a staged one.

Hille James Combat Photographer appears again in our Photo Of The Day, a welcome return. We’re used to seeing his great photos from Afghanistan, but this time he appears from an unexpected place: Mali, a landlocked country in the Saharan and Sahelian regions. Above we can see two Dutch Special Forces soldiers. The shooting position is rather unusual, but should still work quite well. With a good support, usually with the help of a good bipod, you can get far. If you add the support of a good spotter with a set of good binoculars, you’re all set.

POTD, short for Photo Of The Day, is TFB’s daily article series where we try to find pictures that will entertain you. Did you know that credit for the first-ever color photograph taken goes to the mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell? At a lecture in 1861 he unveiled what is to be considered as the first durable color photograph. It certainly sounds a lot more interesting than anything I did at school.

Today’s Photo Of The Day shows a Bulgarian sniper, looking for targets from a tower during the range estimation event of the European Best Sniper Team Competition held in Hohenfels, Germany in August 2021. The 7th Army Training Command hosted a contest of skill that included 14 participating NATO allies and partner nations.

In today’s Photo Of The Day, we offer an experience from Exercise Archipelago Endeavor. Above you see a Swedish Marine with the 204th Rifle Company, 2nd Marine Battalion, 1st Swedish Marine Regiment, providing security aboard a Combat Boat 90 near Berga Naval Base, Sweden, September 2021.

Founded in 1915 The Welsh Guards (in Welsh: Gwarchodlu Cymreig) is an infantry regiment of the British Army. Today the Regiment is a single Battalion equipped and trained for Light Infantry operations, with mainly Welshmen serving. Modern history operations include Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan as well as Northern Ireland and the Falkland Islands.

TFB’s Photo Of The Day can be many things. Today we get a good look at the setup that the German KSK Special Forces are using on their not-so-black rifle. KSK is short for Kommando SpezialKräfte, or Special Forces Command. The KSK takes part in typical SOF operations and they are armed with the Heckler & Koch HK416 in the A7 / G95 configuration. In terms of optics, they are using the EOTech EXPS3 with a G33 magnifier with offset Iron Sights as backup. From Rheinmetall, they are using the LM-VTAL and the TL-MISSIONLIGHT. Of course, there’s some Magpul furniture on the G95 as well, just look at that AFG-2.

Photo Of The Day: A variety of photos from Afghanistan, from a time which now seems like a long while ago. This happened in the Maiwand district in 2014. We have a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier assigned to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan providing security during an advising mission. It looks like they are using ELCAN Specter optics for their suppressed carbines.

Photo Of The Day: Shooting the new M27 IAR, made by Heckler & Koch, from a tripod. Using a tripod as a shooting support isn’t as easy as most people think, but it’s a lot easier than shooting off-hand. The optic is a Trijicon VCOG 1-8×28, which was selected as the USMC Squad Common Optic.

During DSEI 2021 in London, Saab Showcases their new Combat Boat 90 Next Generation on the river Thames. Twice per day visitors were offered waterborne demonstrations outside the main hall and thanks to this we have some spectacular press pictures to share.

The UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Equipment Sales Authority recently released a booklet containing arms and equipment which is to be sold off and disposed. This includes SIG Sauer pistols, FN light machine guns, aircraft, armoured vehicles and a large ship!

At a cost of $119,320 each ( source) this is one expensive Photo Of The Day, that TFB luckily didn’t have to pay for. Above we see a U.S. Marine from the Alpha Battery, 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Platoon, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron – 363 (Reinforced), Marine Rotational Force – Darwin, as he inspects a FIM-92 Stinger missile prior to firing.

At the recent  Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI 2021) exposition in London, the British Army showed off its new future soldier concept. Developed under the program name ‘TommyWorks’ the UK’s land forces are looking to develop a more integrated and situationally aware soldier. The British Army’s theme for DSEI was ‘Future soldier: an integrated Army’

Photo Of The Day and we are back to the excellent pictures from the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group in Latvia. We get a look at soldiers working together to mount a strong defence against an opposing force during the exercise Silver Arrow. Silver Arrow is part of the larger Namejs 2021, designed to test the skills and interoperability of the multiple NATO partners. Above you can see a soldier shooting his Heckler & Koch G36 from a prone position.

While in most countries firearms development and production are getting more and more restrictive, Turkey seems to effectively expand its gun industry, and the recent IDEF 2021 is a good example. Almost half of the firearms manufacturers at the expo were founded in the last 5 years. Özyurt Arms is one of those new companies and it certainly follows the path typical for many new firearms manufacturers.

Once again our Photo Of The Day takes us to The Falklands, where members of the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF) have been improving their marksmanship skills with expert coaching from members of Support Company, Coldstream Guards. Above you can see their SA80 Individual Weapon.

Photo Of The Day – The word photograph is a combination of Greek words and means “drawing with light”. The word was invented by Sir John Herschel, over 180 years ago. I suppose that at the time he had no idea that there would be photos “drawn with light” of a machine gun, yet here we are. These photos are from the Latvian Army and their exercise Namejs 2021. Location: Riga.

Photo Of The Day: As promised we’re back with more Swiss Special Forces, Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK), and here we can see them monitoring the environment from a helicopter. The door gunner is from the military police special detachment (MP Spez Det) and the picture was taken back in 2017.

TFB has been running our very special Photo Of The Day for years, sharing great photos from around the world and the world of firearms. Sometimes the selected pictures involve a lot of action and shooting, sometimes there’s another reason behind the choice. Like today, where we have some boring but still interesting pictures from when the Next Generation Squad Automatic Weapons (NGSAW) was tested by JAK Tool Engineered Solutions.

Back in March,  we reported that the Polish Army is seeking a new Designated Marksman Rifle. It has been reported by Polish media sources that FB Radom and Zakłady Mechaniczne Tarnów have been approached to submit proposals to fulfill the Polish Army’s requirements. This month, while attending DSEI 2021 in London, we got a look at both of the rifles reported to be in the running for the Polish Army’s DMR tender. Both companies are part of Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ SA) or the Polish Armaments Group. PGZ unites Poland’s defense industry under a single state-owned holding company.

Photo Of The Day and yet another great series of photos by Hille James Combat Photographer. Today we have pictures of the Dutch Commandos in Afghanistan, the Korps Commandotroepen (KCT). The Korps Commandotroepen is the Special Forces unit of the Royal Netherlands Army.

Photo Of The Day: Portuguese Special Forces training aircraft intervention, here just before entering. The unit is called Grupo de Intervenção de Operações Especiais or GIOE for short. In this training event, they had the support of Air Portugal and the Airport of Lisbon. You can see the iconic Heckler & Koch MP5 above, suppressed (B&T) and with the stock collapsed. In terms of handguns, they have been seen using both SIG Sauers and Glocks.