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Rifle manufactured by Haenel (civilian version)
Photo: Daniel Karmann / dpa
The way is clear for rearmament of the Bundeswehr with 120,000 assault rifles.
The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has rejected an appeal by the unsuccessful bidder, the Thuringian gunsmith CG Haenel.
The federal government decided in 2021 to award the major contract to the Black Forest company Heckler & Koch.
However, Haenel appealed to get back into the race.
The Higher Regional Court was the final instance in the complaints procedure.
The resolution makes it clear that the award decision remains in place.
Dispute over standard rifle for the troops
Now the Bundestag has to agree.
It is almost certain that Parliament will approve the order to Heckler & Koch.
This is followed by contract negotiations and technical testing in the Bundeswehr.
It will probably be at least two years before the first large batches are delivered to the troops.
The bidding process started in 2017.
In 2020, the Federal Ministry of Defense surprisingly decided to give the order to the small company CG Haenel from Suhl in Thuringia.
For the first time in six decades, the big competitor Heckler & Koch was no longer to provide the standard rifle for the troops.
However, the federal government later backed down, threw Haenel out of the process and announced that they now wanted to award the contract to Heckler & Koch.
Haenel appealed, but failed before the Federal Cartel Office.
The way to the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court remained - Haenel has now lost there.
Of central importance in the dispute is the question of whether a Heckler & Koch patent on tiny openings in the rifle has legal validity.
Heckler & Koch accused Haenel of using this patent without permission.
Haenel, on the other hand, considers the patent to be null and void and wants to overturn it in separate proceedings before the Federal Patent Court.
ulz/als/dpa
