Heckler & Koch G36
assault rifle
The Heckler & Koch G36 (German: Gewehr 36) is an assault rifle designed in the early 1990s by German weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch. It is chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO, and replaced the heavier G3 battle rifle chambered in 7.62×51mm. The G36 was accepted into service with the Bundeswehr in 1997. Since then, it has been a popular export and has seen active service in military and police units in several countries, including Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The G36 is gas-operated and feeds from a 30-round detachable box magazine or 100-round C-Mag drum magazine.
In 2012, the G36 was found to suffer from significant accuracy issues due to thermal expansion of the barrel, prompting a search for a replacement. In 2017, the Bundeswehr launched the System Sturmgewehr Bundeswehr, a program designed to field a replacement for the G36. The weapons put forth were the Heckler & Koch HK416, HK433, and the Haenel MK 556. The HK416 was selected in 2022, and the rifle was adopted as the G95A1. The BAAINBw stated: "From 2026, the Bundeswehr will receive the rifle with the designation G95A1 as the new standard weapon and the G95KA1 in a compact version for special forces."
History
Development
In the 1970s, arms manufacturers in Germany began work on a successor for the G3 rifle, resulting in the creation of the 4.73 mm G11 assault rifle (developed jointly by a group of companies led by Heckler & Koch) that used caseless ammunition (designed by Dynamit Nobel).
“Heckler & Koch G36” enters the record as assault rifle. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Heckler, Koch and assault can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Heckler & Koch G36” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.