Germans testing gas-piston ARs in Panama

I know, they are officially HK416s… but they are essentially M4/16 variants with gas pistons.

For those unclear on the distinction, gas piston guns use exhaust gas to push a piston which in turn pushes the bolt carrier group back – think AK guns. Or M-1s, M-14s – they all use the same system. A tad pricier, maybe, but remember cleaning all that powder fouling from the chamber and the bolt carrier of an M-16? Not a worry when the gas is isolated from the chamber. There are many who maintain that if the M16 had been designed as a gas piston gun originally, all the hoopla about them jamming etc. when they were first introduced would have been moot.

In December 2022, the German Federal Ministry of Defense announced that funding had formally been approved for the acquisition of its new Bundeswehr Assault Rifle System, or System Sturmgewehr Bundeswehr, based around the HK416 A8. In addition to the G95A1 with its 16.5-inch barrel, the new ‘system’ also includes a shorter 14-inch barrelled variant designated as the G95KA1.

One assumes the G95KA1 refers to the shorter barrel (Kurz) as the old Mauser M98K was the shorter version of the rifle (Gewehr) 98.

The rifles seen in the picture from Panama also have ELCAN SpecterDR 1-4x adjustable optical sights, which the Germans separately announced in 2021 would be standard on all G95A1s and G95KA1s. One of the rifles is also seen with an additional thermal imager fitted. Aiming lasers and lights are visible on a number of the guns, as well.

The thermal imager is on the pic at the top.

The standard optics arrangement on existing G95s in service with Germany’s special operations forces is a non-magnifying EOTech EXPS3 holographic sight paired with a G33 1-3x magnifier from the same company on a mount that allows it to be flipped out of the way when it is not in use.

This may be interesting to follow; the predecessor G95s have drawn complaint for inaccuracy when hot, which this weapon was supposed to address – but during testing HK was allowed to use civilian ammo for testing and their military ammo is hotter – they could be bringing in more weapons with the same problems they are trying to solve.

“Current testing by the army in laboratory conditions shows that the weapon doesn’t meet army standards when loaded with combat ammunition,” the report said, according to a subsequent story from the Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom. “The army requires an assault rifle that is sufficiently accurate under real conditions with its combat ammunition … [but the German Defense Ministry] can no longer ensure this… due to a modified contract with the weapon manufacturer.” The Warzone

Everyone says everything is hunky-dory – let’s hope so.

Category: NATO