German Army to purchase over 10,000 more MG5 machine guns

The German Parliament's defense committee has approved a budget of 25 million euros for the procurement of the weapons from Heckler & Koch

German Army to purchase over 10,000 more MG5 machine guns

Photo: Bundeswehr

The German Army intends to acquire thousands of additional MG5 machine guns in the coming years. German website Soldat & Technik reports that the German parliament's defense committee has approved a budget of 25 million euros for the procurement of an additional 11,000 MG5 7.62mm machine guns from Heckler & Koch. This means that a corresponding order for Heckler & Koch to deliver around 11,000 of the machine guns to the German Armed Forces is emerging. Thus, when deliveries are completed, the military is expected to have over 18,000 of the weapons, including the standard MG5, the vehicle-mounted MG5A1 and infantry-designated MG5A2 versions, according to the website. 

The MG5 is based on the HK121, which was developed by Heckler & Koch since the end of 2005. The idea at the time was to create a modern universal 7.62x51mm machine gun. Operational experience from missions in Afghanistan and Iraq showed the need for such powerful weapons in the old NATO standard caliber, not only in the German Army. Germany's MG5 project began with the machine gun initiative launched around the turn of the year 2009. It called for light, medium and heavy machine guns as well as a medium machine gun with high cadence. The German Army currently uses the 5.56x45mm HK MG4 as a light machine gun, and uses the FN Browning M2, mounted on vehicles, and the FN Browning M3M, mounted on helicopters, as heavy machine guns. The Army also procured a Germanized version of the Dillon-Aero M134-D, called the MG6, as a "medium-to-high cadence" machine gun for special forces, the website said. 

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