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Heckler & Koch G36

Assault Rifle

The G36 had been designed in the early 1990s by Heckler & Koch company (HK). It was intended to replace the ageing G3 battle rifle in service with the Bundeswehr. The new rifle was also aimed at export customers. During trials a prototype of the HK G36 was rated higher than the Austrian Steyr AUG. The G36 entered service with the German army (Bundeswehr) as a standard infantry rifle in 1995. This weapon became an export success. It has been exported to more than 40 countries around the world. It is also in service with various law enforcement agencies worldwide. Even though the G36 is one of the best assault rifles in the world. It was in service with the Germany army for more than 20 years, hence it was considered out-dated in Germany. It lacks some features of modern assault rifles. Since 2017 the German army was looking for a new weapon to replace it. Several designs, including the Heckler & Koch HK416, HK433, Rheinmetall-Steyr RS-556, Haenel MK556 and some other international designs competed to meet this requirement. However eventually the vast majority of bidders had withdrawn from the competition. The Haenel MK556 was selected as a winner in 2020, but was eventually rejected due to infringement of Heckler & Koch patents followed by lawsuits. This left the competition with only one contender - the Heckler & Koch company. Eventually the HK416A8 assault rifle was selected by the German army to replace the G36 starting in 2022. The Heckler & Koch G36 is chambered for a standard NATO 5.56x45 mm ammunition. It is a conventional gas operated, selective fire rifle. It uses some proven elements of the previous G3 rifle design. Internally it also bears a lot of similarity with the US Armalite AR-18 automatic rifle. Trigger unit is assembled in a separate module and is interchangeable. This assembly includes a pistol grip and the triggerguard as well as the trigger mechanism. This interchangeable trigger unit is available in a couple of variants with a variety of firing mode combinations. A standard version has settings for semi-auto, 2 round burst and full-auto modes. There is also a setting for safety. Another widely usede version has settings for "safe", "semi-auto" and "full-auto". Other combinations are also available, such as "safe" and "semi-auto". Trigger unit with different combination can be simply installed. Most external parts of the G36 are made form polymer materials. At the time of its introduction manufacturing process of this weapon used the most modern technologies. The G36 is being referred as a good, accurate and reliable weapon. It is also simple in operation and maintenance. This rifle can be field stripped without any tools. However there were complaints about overheating of the polymer handguard during the sustained fire. This weapon is fully ambidextrous. A charging handle can be rotated to the left or to the right. The ejection window has a spent cases deflector, which propels ejected cases away from the left-handed shooters. The fire mode selector is also ambidextrous. This rifle is fed form 30-round box-shaped magazines, made form translucent plastic. Two or three magazines can be clipped together for rapid reloading. This weapon is also compatible with a 100-round dual drum magazines. The G36 comes with a side-folding skeletonized stock, which folds to the right side. When folded this stock does not interfere with weapon's operation. After some adjustments this rifle becomes compatible with any standard NATO magazines, intended for the 5.56 mm ammunition. A standard German army rifle has a dual sight system. It consists of one 3.5x magnification scope, suitable for long-range accurate shooting and one 1x magnification red dot sight above it, suitable for short ranges. Both sights are built into the carrying handle. Some German soldiers complained that sights are being easily fogged in bad weather conditions. This rifle is compatible with the HK AG36 40 mm underbarrel grenade launcher. It can be used to launch barrel-mounted riffle grenades. Interestingly the original G36 uses a German bayonet lug, which is somewhat different from the standard NATO bayonet lug. This weapon can be equipped with an AK-74 style bayonet.