Shipbucket

Unless the German government succeeds in destroying its domestic arms manufacturing companies (IE H&K) then their service rifle and indeed other small-arms will continue to be H&K made. Personally I foresee the G38 replacing the G36, one because it's already type classified by the German government which means it's already undergone at least provisional testing for suitability and two there are an abundance of existing 416 users from which they can modify things should they see the need to. The 417A2 / G28 will probably continue in service as a stopgap weapon as it is being procured for now and probably finish off the last of the G3ZFs

In response to JSB's reply which happened whilst I was typing.

There's a whole group of reasons, the German government wants to implode their arms manufacturing business because they think they're basically the devil's incarnate so hyping up problems with the G36 and falsifying reports to slander H&K is perfectly fine by them. On the other hand there's the other side which are saying there's absolutely nothing wrong with the G36 as a platform and it was all made up. Personally I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle, there might well have been instances of the aforementioned problems occurring but that it's taken this long for them to be reported on makes me wonder A: did the Bundeswehr already know of the potential for a wandering zero to occur and B: why bring it up now? More prevalent in Afghan heat? Want a new rifle?

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AU Projects: | Banbha et al. | New England: The Divided States
Blood and Fire

What most are saying about the issue is the reason this problem hasn't been obvious sooner is:

A: The weapon is less likely to overheat in cooler climates, such as northern Europe &

B: Until A-Stan, nobody was shooting them enough to really find out the problem.

If you're interested in this issue, http://www.tank-net.com/forums/index.ph ... opic=40518 While this is being debated on any number of forums ad nauseum, Tank-Net has a higher ratio of individuals who have an actual clue what they're talking about, having a large community of former and current service members from around the world.

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We can't stop here--this is Bat country!

If it's close enough to cast a shadow, I think the flying house wins initiative.

Bronies are like the Forsworn. Everyone agrees that they are a problem but nobody wants to expend the energy rooting them out.

"That is a very graphic analogy which aids understanding wonderfully while being, strictly speaking, wrong in every possible way."

They should go to the HK-416 (or whatever the 5.56mm version is) - it obviously works well as the Navy SEALs use it over the M4 carbine last I heard. As for the suggestion around POF-USA I highly doubt a small American manufacturer would even be considered for a contract by the German government.

Unrelated but I've often wondered why some of the NATO countries adopted assault rifles that did not use the STANAG 30rd magazine (like the G36 and Steyr AUG). Surely it would be easier and beneficial for those rifles to accept the standard M16 magazine?

Interesting comment about the German govt vilifying the arms industry.

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

Yus, 416. Germans type classified it as G38 recently for one of their ministries.

I've always wondered that myself, you'd think it'd be beneficial to do so given the absolute glut of them around compared to type-specific ones.

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AU Projects: | Banbha et al. | New England: The Divided States
Blood and Fire

As for POF, Philippine Navy SEALs (NAVSOG) and some units of the Philippine National Police use the P416 alongside other rifles like the M4 and HK416, so POF had some government contracts as well.
EDIT: picture of a NAVSOG operator (center) with a POF P416:

Hi all

It's proven that the first models of the G36 had massive problems with their plastic handguards smelting and so on, but this issues are fixed. It's
partly proven that the G36 had some stability problems when using auto fire in extreme situations but that is not the main problem regarding to the latest
analyses. The ammunition used for the G36 is also a problem because some batches are defective. The tin coat of the projectille is incondite.
This tests are made by H&K on their own and not by the government. Also many people using the G36 support H&K and can't confirm the problems or
at least seriousness of the problem.
H&K website
source (german)

A replacement for the G36 could be the Hk416/ G38 but also the variant developed for the IDZ program because the G36 works quite well in european
conditiones. We have to wait what new test will show...

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best regards
Martin

~~Normerr~~FD stuff~~

If fouling from defective ammunition is a problem, HK should switch from using chrome-lined barrels to nitride treated barrels like what POF-USA and LWRC use. Nitride treated barrels are much harder and corrosion resistant than chrome-lined barrels. Nitride treated barrels don't foul up with copper from ammunition, so cleaning is much easier.

Personally Afghan demonstrated 5.56 isn't good enough and it needs to go back to 7.62x51