When David faces Goliath, David wins. That's how history tells it. Whether that's really the case remains open for now.

The new assault rifle of the Bundeswehr was supposed to be produced by the arms forge C.G. Haenel in Thuringia – we reported. The competitor and traditional manufacturer Heckler & Koch would have been left empty-handed. But they were able to appeal. And now the Ministry of Defense is backtracking.

The German Ministry of Defense has announced that it is withdrawing the award of the major contract for the new Bundeswehr assault rifle to Haenel. The Ministry justified the move with "possible patent infringements" by the company against the competitor Heckler & Koch. We are providing you with the complete statement from the German Ministry of Defense here:

"Based on the request for review submitted to the 1st Federal Procurement Chamber at the Federal Cartel Office on September 30, 2020 by Heckler & Koch, the Federal procurement authority (BAAINBw) has obtained verifiable knowledge for the first time of a possible patent infringement by the company C.G. Haenel GmbH to the detriment of the bidder Heckler & Koch."

The internal investigations initiated in response led to the conclusion that there is a possibility of a patent infringement by the bidder C.G. Haenel GmbH to the detriment of the bidder Heckler & Koch.

In this context, the Federal procurement authority was required to lift the notification (§ 134 GWB) to the bidders about the intended award to the company C.G. Haenel GmbH.

The Federal procurement authority will therefore enter into a reassessment of the offers taking into account all aspects."

Interpreting this statement correctly, it does not mean that the MK556 does not have the chance to become the new assault rifle of the Bundeswehr. However, the previously straightforward process has been downgraded to a re-examination. The interesting question is which patents could have been violated. There is a rumor that it could be the magazine and thus a patent from Magpul, not from HK. Spiegel Online writes: "Haenel has apparently been at odds with a US manufacturer for some time, who had certain components of the magazine patented. However, from the Thuringian weapon forge's perspective, there is no protection. Nevertheless, the manufacturer would have had to make the ongoing dispute transparent in the bid for the Bundeswehr's major contract for the new assault rifle, according to procurement law experts."

David against Goliath is definitely an exciting match. Because after the initial shock and after the opportunity for HK to respond and go into battle, a considerable firestorm has been unleashed against Haenel and its product: first it was “Arabs who own the company”, then the Yemen war that is being financed, the scattered doubts that the Thuringian company, which is part of the Merkel group, might not be able to fulfill such a large order. Lastly, there were conspicuously leaked documents from the Bundeswehr decision-making process, uniformly covered by the online magazine “Businessinsider”, which were supposed to discredit Haenel and its product: sometimes with allegations of “secret clauses”, then with “secret agreements”. “Patent infringement” was not mentioned and is brand new... Let's wait and see what remains of it.

How is the Special Forces assault rifle doing?

In any case, the German Bundeswehr looks back on a "successful" year: political debate on the abolition of Special Forces, cancellation of the large helicopter procurement 14 days ago, now this fiasco with the Bundeswehr assault rifle. But they shouldn't have all gotten it anyway: German Special Forces are supposed to use the HK416 from Heckler & Koch as G95, after all, they won this separate tender from 2017. Delivery was supposed to start in January 2019, but allegedly the 1,000 pieces have not been accepted so far. The troops, it is said, are rather dissatisfied. Could the next German debacle be looming?

We will see how this Goliath battle will end. And where David will end up in the end...

HAENEL DEFENCE on the Internet: www.cg-haenel.de/defence_de

HECKLER & KOCH on the Internet: www.heckler-koch.com

The Bundeswehr on the Internet: www.bundeswehr.de

MORE ASSAULT RIFLES OF THE BUNDESWEHR ON SPARTANAT

HERE we present the Haenel MK556 on SPARTANAT.

HERE the Bundeswehr confirms the decision.

HECKLER & KOCH responds to the Bundeswehr's decision.

HAENEL explains regarding the MK556.