The Latvian military is once again rearming - a contract for the amount of 13 million euros for the purchase for the needs of the army, civil militia "Home Guard" and the State Border Guard assault rifles.
German G36, as the Baltic media write, will be acquired from Heckler & Koch GmbH. Defense Minister Raimonds Bergmanis noted, that the purchase of assault rifles and other weapons will provide the Armed Forces and "Home Guard" with modern weapons, meeting NATO standards.
With an American store
The piquancy of the situation is, what is this weapon, seemingly meeting NATO standards and conditionally considered modern, for some time now has ceased to meet the needs of their users. First of all, the Bundeswehr itself abandoned the G36 - more on this in 2015 declared the head of the Federal Republic of Germany's military department Ursula von der Leyen. “In agreement with the army leadership, it was decided to irrevocably draw the line. After almost 20 years of using the G36, we want to equip the Bundeswehr with a new generation of automatic rifles. ", - said the minister to Frau, noting, that the claims are related to the incorrect operation of the sighting system when the weapon is overheated.
Really, collimator Zeiss, which the rifle is equipped with, caused a lot of complaints from users. They blamed the device for the tunnel effect - the viewing angle is small and in battle does not allow normal control of the space. The sight is equipped with a special system, in natural light providing battery-free operation. In the room, it must be turned on., what precious seconds are spent on. Moreover, in the turmoil of the battle, you can easily forget about it.. Besides, the sight fogs up in the rain.
Discontent is also caused by the store latch - small and very tight, uncomfortable when working with gloves. The stores themselves are made of rather fragile, especially at low temperatures, plasty. It cracks easily, which in turn leads to distortion of the cartridge and delays when firing. Therefore, users prefer non-standard, and American-made stores made of aluminum.
Of course, these problems can be eliminated by upgrading, performed at the level of military workshops, and they are not grounds for abandoning the G36. The main reasons in the Bundeswehr are trying not to dwell on the main reasons.. Stealth is easy to explain: 167 thousand rifles, which will be withdrawn from the troops, it is necessary to do something with. And while there is hope to sell them to someone - the same Latvia, need to use.
Formerly Heckler & Koch ran a very aggressive ad campaign, sparing no expense for PR. To convince potential consumers, that the G36 is the world's best weapon, even Hollywood was hooked up, good, that the weapon looks very futuristic. Even the famous American shooting instructor and expert Gabriel Suarez in the book "Tactical carbine" included this rifle among the best, specifying, true, at its incredibly high price. However, Suarez most likely dealt with civil, self-loading version of the rifle, where the main disadvantages of the device are less noticeable and not so relevant.
Cool off in the heat of battle
The German military began to express dissatisfaction with the G36 after its very first combat use in Afghanistan. AT 2009 year, when the Bundeswehr soldier was sent to perform "international duty", started massive complaints about, that rifles instantly overheat and fail due to jamming. reported, that after shooting in short bursts of two or three magazines, the accuracy of the weapon drops by a third. AT 2010 a scandal broke out, when the German paratroopers were ambushed at Char-Dara. As found by the investigation, at least three fighters died due to weapon failure. The battle was captured in detail on action cameras, helmet-mounted soldiers, and everyone saw, how rifles fail one after another, and the paratroopers have to wait, while they cool down, to resume fire. To the enemy, armed with Chinese AK, German fire did not cause serious damage.
Paris refuseniks
It was not possible to write off such an obvious unsuitability of rifles for the specific conditions of Afghanistan - it turned out, that in Western Europe they do not work much better.
French Ministry of Internal Affairs purchased G36 for police special forces units, in particular for members of the Paris Police Crime Brigade (Anti-crime squad - BAC). anticipated, that the special forces armed with the "best in the world" rifle will be head and shoulders above the terrorists, used in the Parisian terrorist attacks AK.
More gentle regime of weapon exploitation, than in police special forces, where it works mainly at the shooting range and range, extremely rare - on the road and there are no problems with regular cleaning and maintenance, hard to come up with. But the French were disappointed. They soon came to the conclusion: G36, showing quite decent results when firing single shots, completely unsuitable for automatic fire due to the rapid drop in accuracy when the barrel heats up and the tendency to fail.
Recall, that the very transition to a low-impulse cartridge 5,56x45 in Germany and in other countries was associated with the lack of accuracy of assault rifles, using a cartridge 7.62x51 when firing bursts. So, in the Bundeswehr G36 replaced G3 7.62x51 (by the way, pretty reliable rifle). That is, the transition turned out to be meaningless for the German military - instead of advantages, they received a lot of problems. Despite the fact that the new cartridge was inferior to the old one in power. And this is very significant with the massive use of personal body armor..
There are no recoilless machines
AT 2015 year after the refusal to purchase G36, the Bundeswehr command ordered a "transitional period" 600 automatic rifles G27P, with which it was supposed to arm the fighters of foreign missions. That is, those who went there, where you will most likely have to use weapons. This fact, which is the actual recognition of the complete unsuitability of the rifle and therefore not too advertised, - the last nail in the coffin G36.
Inevitable question: why does the Latvian Ministry of Defense buy a worthless rifle? Moreover, the military doctrine is small, but a very proud republic involves waging a guerrilla war against an aggressor. obviously, what with the weapon, proved to be unreliable even for the Parisian police, you can't fight a lot.
By the way, quite reliable AKM and AK-74 are still in Latvian warehouses., which Riga prefers to sell to Ukraine and the Middle East. That fact, that this weapon uses a cartridge, not standardized for NATO, not an obstacle - NATO Poland, Romania and Hungary still use Soviet-caliber weapons. And in Bulgaria, AK is produced under the NATO cartridge 5.56x45 and costs several times cheaper than the G36.
Can, of course, suggest, that innocent Latvians fell under the charm of the "Hollywood image" G36. However, before the conclusion of such contracts, serious and tough tests are usually carried out.. And on the Web, it is not difficult to collect sufficient information about this rifle..
However, Heckler's marketers & Koch are renowned for their ability to engage and persuade customers beyond aggressive advertising.. properly, it is addressed not so much to the direct buyer, how much to the public. After all, if you convince taxpayers, as if in front of them the "weapon of the future", much less chance, that MPs and journalists will be interested in: “Why did you buy this stuff at all?? Can, got a rollback?».
However, this is exactly what Latvian journalists are suggesting. The republic's media recall, How was Minister Bergmanis asked, for what purpose did his department purchase the old Stinger MANPADS, powerless against Russian aviation, with which Latvia is going to fight. Then he answered: “I'm not an expert. But they are not only against planes. There are helicopters yet. And they are needed to protect their branch, this is a close range weapon. I think, that they are very effective, there is no doubt about it. Would not produce them, if they weren't effective ".
Most likely, a non-expert minister will explain the purchase of G36 in the same way.. Moreover, he was already caught buying optical sights at an overpriced price.. Although Bergmanis is not a specialist, he understands perfectly, what if Latvia decides to fight with Russia, it will be absolutely indifferent, what are the soldiers of the "Homesard" armed with - G36, AKM, M-16 or muskets from the times of John IV. And if there is no difference, then why not do so, to make someone feel good. for example, by Heckler & Koch, Bundeswehr Armament Service and Latvian Minister of Defense?
What is great for a German?
The question is inevitable: and what do they want to rearm the Bundeswehr? Heckler & Koch 433 is a modular compact assault rifle in 5.56x45 mm caliber. New machine, according to the manufacturer's assurances, combines the best features of the G36 and HK416 rifles and is positioned as a replacement for the G36.
HK433 is available in six versions, which differ in barrel length. Developers point, that the new rifle is compatible with accessories and some elements of G36 assault rifles, HK416 and AR-15 (on the basis of which the army M16 and M4 were created). In this case, the arrows, previously used all of the above models, will be able to fully work with HK433, since their key elements (magazine ejection button, fuse and fire translator) placed in the same places.
The mass of the HK433 is from 3,2 to 3,6 kilogram and depends on the length of the trunk. The assault rifle is equipped with standard NATO STANAG 30-round magazines 4179. The maximum rate of fire is about 700 rounds per minute. HK433 is compatible with grenade launchers, including HK269 and GLM / GLMA1.
Author: Boris Dzherelyevskyy
fountainhead: https://vpk-news.ru/articles/41124
