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Soldiers carry Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles during roll call
Photo: Patrick Pleul / picture alliance
The Bundeswehr is now supposed to get its new assault rifle from the weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch.
The Ministry of Defense announced that after the award procedure was completed, the company “intends” to award the contract to the Baden-Württemberg company.
The competitor CG Haenel from Thuringia was therefore excluded from the award process because of alleged patent infringements.
The decision means a U-turn for the Ministry of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU): It surprisingly announced in mid-September that CG Haenel had emerged as the winner of the award procedure for around 120,000 assault rifles.
At that time, the armaments company Heckler & Koch was left behind and lodged a complaint.
It had delivered the previous G36 assault rifles to the Bundeswehr.
Haenel was awarded the contract on the grounds that his weapon was comparably good, but significantly cheaper.
The company belongs to an Arab armaments company.
The ministry withdrew the award in October
In October the ministry withdrew the planned award to CG Haenel.
The ministry justified the step with possible patent infringements at the expense of Heckler & Koch.
The federal awarding authority announced a »reassessment of the offers taking into account all aspects«.
According to the ministry, an external patent law firm was commissioned to carry out an assessment.
The lawyers found a patent infringement.
A subsequent statement from Haenel had been "examined in detail" and "incorporated into the overall assessment".
"The repetition of the bid evaluation is now complete," said the ministry about the rejection of CG Haenel.
The opposition responded with criticism on various points of the decision.
"The fact that the former winner of the tender is now excluded from the process shows how error-prone the process of procuring a new assault rifle went," said Green Defense politician Tobias Lindner.
It seems that in the end the courts will decide which assault rifle the troops will receive.
The FDP defense politician Alexander Müller, on the other hand, was relieved that a decision had now been made.
"The Heckler & Koch 416 model is certainly a good choice for the troops," he said.
The lesson, however, must be to examine possible patent law violations in future procurements.
Now there is a threat of years of conflict.
CG Haenel could take action against the decision.
In 2015, the then Federal Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) decided to retire the G36 that had previously been purchased from Heckler & Koch.
The background was concerns about precision problems with the rifle.
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ire / AFP / dpa