German special operations units to receive HK416A7 designated G95K.

Germany’s special ops units - Kommando Spezialkrafte (KSK) and sailors of the Kommando Spezialkrafte Marine (KSM) - will receive a new rifle: the Heckler und Koch HK416 A7, which the Germans have designated the G95K (Gewehr 95 Kurz, Rifle 95 Short). The standing order is for less than 2,000 new rifles, to be fulfilled by the end of 2019, Stavros Atlamazoglu reports on The NewsRep.

HK416A7, designated G95K (Picture source: The Firearm.blog)

The rifle will be issued with a 14.5-inch barrel and shoot the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge. EOTech will provide the optics: the rifles will be equipped with the EOTech EXPS3-0 holographic weapon sight and G33 magnifier.

Operational conditions testing took place in the U.S. Dr. Karl-Heinz Rippert, chief of optronics in the lasers and acoustics branch of the German Ministry of Defense, stated that the Yuma Proving Ground offered ideal testing conditions for the G95K: in “the Yuma Proving Ground, we have special conditions of sand and dust,” said the German official, adding that “the landscape profile is similar to Afghanistan. The result we achieve should have some relevance to our missions, and the main mission in recent years was in Afghanistan.”

The KSK is Germany’s prime counterterrorism unit. It is a fairly new outfit, having been established in 1996, but already has a great deal of combat experience from conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali, Libya, and other places around the globe, The NewsRep reports. The KSK was modeled after the British Special Air Service (SAS) and America’s Delta Force. Much like the KSK, the KSM is the premier special operations unit of the German Navy. Established in the 1950s, the KSM specializes in maritime counterterrorism and all maritime special operations missions.