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The Defense Ministry has stopped the award procedure for the new Bundeswehr assault rifle. The reason is that a patent infringement by the company cannot be ruled out, the ministry said on Friday. “In this context, the federal awarding authority was required to revoke the information letter to bidders regarding the planned award of the contract to CG Haenel GmbH,” says a statement. The federal awarding authority will thus enter into a re-evaluation of the bids taking all aspects into account.
“With the cancellation of the award there is the possibility of ending a failed procurement project and saving the taxpayer a large block of costs,” said FDP member of the Bundestag Alexander Müller of the German press agency. “The G36 is a good, well-designed assault rifle that the soldiers are very satisfied with.”
The defense policy of the FDP, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, called for consequences. “It’s unbelievable. Years of adjudication process, questionable ownership structures, now everything goes back to zero due to incredible rookie mistakes. As if it were toys,” he wrote on Twitter.
In September, the Thuringian company with its model “MK 556” surprisingly prevailed in the tender process against the offer from Heckler & Koch in Baden-Württemberg. In the process started in 2017, the Thuringian company had presented a weapon that, according to military circles, had proven to be somewhat better suited to Bundeswehr requirements and cheaper in testing. The tender was for a contract worth 250 million euros.
Heckler & Koch has been supplying assault rifles to the German Armed Forces for decades, the “HK G3” was introduced as early as 1959, the successor “G36” also comes from the company. An adventure had developed around this weapon starting in 2012, which had started with hints of problems with the accuracy. According to subsequent official investigations, these occurred after long sequences of fire or under the influence of heat. The weapon is valued by soldiers to this day.
Criticism of Haenel’s decision
The decision in favor of Haenel received some criticism. It was doubted that the company would be able to produce the required 120,000 rifles, including accessories, in a seven-year period. Furthermore, CG Haenel is a subsidiary of the hunting and sporting arms manufacturer Merkel, which is owned by Caracal-Holding, an arms manufacturer from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which is once again part of the state arms company EDGE Group. .
Heckler & Koch had filed a complaint against the competitor’s offer. Based on this complaint, the federal registry (BAAINBw) learned of the possible infringement of the patent law, which, as they say, could not be ruled out.
For Heckler & Koch, the Berlin decision was a severe setback at an inopportune time. The company is heavily in debt: its financial obligations of € 249 million are approximately as high as the annual turnover (2019: € 239 million). After two years of losses, H&K finally became profitable again. However, the situation remains tense with the debt problem still unresolved.
