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Heckler & Koch GmbH (HK)

Type	GmbH, Private
Industry	Defense
Founded	1948; 70 years ago (1948)
Founder	Edmund Heckler, Theodor Koch, Alex Seidel
Headquarters	Oberndorf am Neckar , Germany
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Andreas Heeschen (Chairman)
Products	Firearms, weapons
Revenue	€202.40 million (2016)[1]
Operating income	€48.10 million (2016)[1]
Net income	€7 million (2016)
Owner	Andreas Heeschen Keith Halsey
Number of employees	700 (2016)
Website	www.heckler-koch.com (International) hk-usa.com (United States)

Heckler & Koch GmbH (HK) (German pronunciation: [ˌhɛklɐ ʔʊnt ˈkɔx]) is a German defense manufacturing company that manufactures handguns, rifles, submachine guns, and grenade launchers. The company is located in Oberndorf in the state of Baden-Württemberg, and also has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France and the United States.

The Heckler & Koch Group comprises Heckler & Koch GmbH, Heckler & Koch Defense, NSAF Ltd., and Heckler & Koch France SAS. The company's motto is "Keine Kompromisse!" (No Compromises!).^[2] HK provides firearms for many military and paramilitary units, like the SAS, KMar, the US Navy SEALs, Delta Force, HRT, Canada's Joint Task Force 2, the German KSK and GSG 9 and many other counter-terrorist and hostage rescue teams.

Some of their more notable products include the MP5, UMP submachine guns, the G3, HK417 battle rifles, the HK33, G36, HK416 assault rifles, the MG5, HK21 General-purpose machine guns, the MP7 personal defense weapon, the USP series of handguns, and the high-precision PSG1 sniper rifle. All HK firearms are named by a prefix and the official designation, with suffixes used for variants.

HK has a history of innovation in firearms, such as the use of polymers in weapon designs and the use of an integral rail for flashlights on handguns. HK also developed modern polygonal rifling, noted for its high accuracy, increased muzzle velocity and barrel life.^[3] Not all its technologically ambitious designs have become commercially successful products (for instance, the advanced but now abandoned G11 military rifle, which fired caseless high-velocity ammunition). In its extensive product range, HK has used the following operating systems for small arms: blowback operation, short-recoil, roller-delayed blowback, gas-delayed blowback, and gas operation (via Short-stroke piston).

History

With the fall of Germany at the end of World War II, Oberndorf came under French control, and the entire Waffenfabrik Mauser AG factory was dismantled by French occupying forces. All factory records were destroyed on orders of the local French Army commander. In 1948, three former Mauser engineers, Edmund Heckler, Theodor Koch, and Alex Seidel, saved what they could from the factory and used what they salvaged to start a machine tool plant in the vacant factory that became known as the Engineering Office Heckler & Co.^[4][5]

On December 28, 1949, the Engineering Office Heckler & Co. changed its name and was registered officially as Heckler & Koch GmbH. Initially the new company manufactured machine tools, bicycle and sewing machine parts, gauges and other precision parts.^[6]

In 1956, Heckler & Koch responded to the West German government's tender for a new infantry rifle for the Bundeswehr (German Federal Army) with the proposal of the G3 battle rifle, which was based on the Spanish CETME rifle.^[4][5] The German government awarded Heckler & Koch the tender and by 1959 declared the G3 the standard rifle of the Bundeswehr.^[7][8] In 1961, Heckler & Koch developed the 7.62×51mm HK21 general-purpose machine gun, based on the G3 battle rifle.^[9]

In 1966, Heckler & Koch introduced the HK54 machine pistol, which eventually launched in 1969 as the MP5 machine pistol.^[10] Two years later, the company introduced the 5.56×45mm HK33 assault rifle, a smaller version of the G3 battle rifle chambered in 5.56mm NATO.^[11][12]

Diversification

In 1974, Heckler & Koch diversified into two more areas, HK Defense and Law Enforcement Technology and HK Hunting and Sports Firearms. Since then HK has designed and manufactured more than 100 different types of firearms and devices for the world's military and law enforcement organizations as well as sports shooters and hunters.^[13]

In 1990, Heckler & Koch completed two decades of development of their revolutionary caseless weapon system and produced prototypes of the HK G11. The company also produced prototypes of the HK G41 military rifle intended for the Bundeswehr. Due to the international political climate at the time (East and West Germany uniting and defense budget cuts) the company was unable to secure funded contracts from the German government to support production of either weapon system and became financially vulnerable. The next year, Heckler & Koch was sold to the British Aerospace's Royal Ordnance division.^[2]

During 1994 and 1995, the German government awarded Heckler & Koch contracts for producing an updated standard assault rifle and updated standard sidearm for the Bundeswehr. Heckler & Koch developed and produced the Project HK50, a lightweight carbon fiber–reinforced polymer assault rifle, which became the HK G36 assault rifle. In addition, Heckler & Koch produced the HK P8 derived as a variant of its Universale Selbstladepistole (USP) series of handguns (which had been in production since 1989). The P8 was adopted as the standard handgun for the Bundeswehr in 1994 and the G36 in 1995.^[14]

As the result of a 1999 merger between British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems, Heckler & Koch was owned by BAE Systems and contracted to refurbish the SA80 rifle for the British Army.^[15] This contract entailed a modification programme to the SA80 series of rifles to address a number of reliability issues with the SA80. In 2002, BAE Systems restructured and sold Heckler & Koch to a group of private investors, who created the German group holding company HK Beteiligungs GmbH.

In 2003, HK Beteiligungs GmbH's business organization restructured as Heckler & Koch Jagd und Sportwaffen GmbH (HKJS) and its business was separated into the two business areas similar to the 1974 business mission areas, Defense and Law Enforcement and Sporting Firearms.

In 2004, Heckler & Koch was awarded a major handgun contract for the DHS, worth a potential $26.2 million for up to 65,000 handguns.^[16] This contract ranks as the single largest handgun procurement contract in US law enforcement history.^[17]

Heckler & Koch facility in Oberndorf am Neckar.

HK was contracted by the United States Army to produce the kinetic energy subsystem^[18] (see: kinetic projectiles or kinetic energy penetrator) of the Objective Individual Combat Weapon, a planned replacement for the M16/M203 grenade launcher combination. The OICW was designed to fire 5.56 mm bullets and 25 mm grenades. The kinetic energy component was also developed separately as the XM8, though both the OICW and XM8 are now indefinitely suspended.

Heckler & Koch developed a Colt M4 variant, marketed as the HK416.^[19] HK replaced the direct impingement system used by the Stoner design on the original M16 with a short-stroke piston operating system.

There is no indication that the rifle will be adopted by the United States Armed Forces other than in the Marine Corps as the IAR or M27, but the elite Delta Force and other special operations units have fielded the HK416 in combat,^[20] and Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn has called for "free and open competition" to determine whether the army should buy the HK416 or continue to purchase more M4 carbines.^[21] Incoming Secretary of the Army Pete Geren agreed in July 2007 to hold a "dust chamber" test pitting the M4 against HK's HK416 and XM8, as well as the rival Fabrique Nationale's SOF Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR) design. Coburn had threatened to stop Geren’s Senate confirmation if he did not agree to the test.^[22] The HK XM8 and FN SCAR had the fewest failures in the test, closely followed by the HK416, while the M4 had by far the most.^[23] In 2007, the Norwegian Army became the first to field the HK416 as a standard-issue rifle.^[24]

HK sells its pistols in the United States to both law enforcement and civilian markets. The company has locations in Virginia, New Hampshire, and Georgia.

Trafficking allegations

HK has been accused of shipping small arms to conflict regions such as Bosnia^[25] and Nepal,^[26] and has licensed its weapons for production by governments with poor human rights records such as Sudan, Thailand and Burma.^[27] It has been argued that the company effectively evaded EU export restrictions when these licensees sold HK weapons to conflict zones including Indonesia,^[28] Sri Lanka^[29] and Sierra Leone.^[26]

According to the newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten (31 August 2011), as well as the state broadcaster ARD, a large stockpile of G36 assault rifles fell into rebel hands during the August 2011 attack on Muammar Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli. It is unclear how many were exported to Libya and by whom.^[30]

HK abbreviations

Format: Abbreviation = German Text ("English Text")

• 
  A = Ausführung ("version")


• 
  G = Gewehr ("rifle")^[31]
  


• 
  K = Either Kurz ("short") for pistols and submachine guns or Karabiner ("Carbine") for rifles and battle rifles.^[32]
  


• 
  AG = Either stands for Anbau-Gerät ("attached device") or Anbaugranatwerfer ("attached grenade launcher")


• 
  GMG = Granatmaschinengewehr ("grenade machine gun")^[33]
  


• 
  GMW = Granatmaschinenwaffe (automatic grenade launcher)^[34]
  


• 
  MG = Maschinengewehr ("machine gun") ^[33]
  


• 
  MP = Maschinenpistole ("submachine gun" or "machine pistol")^[35]
  


• 
  PSG = Präzisionsschützengewehr ("precision sharp shooter rifle")^[36]
  


• 
  PSP = Polizei-Selbstlade-Pistole ("police self-loading pistol")^[37]
  


• 
  SD = Schalldämpfer ("sound dampener", "suppressor");^[38] In the case of the MP5 having an integral suppressor, in the case of the USP, an extended threaded barrel for attaching a suppressor.


• 
  SG = Scharfschützengewehr ("sharpshooters rifle") ^[39]
  


• 
  SL = Selbstlader ("Autoloader") ^[40]
  


• 
  UMP = Universale Maschinenpistole ("universal machine pistol")^[41]
  


• 
  UCP = Universal Combat Pistol


• 
  USC = Universal Self-loading Carbine


• 
  USP = Universale Selbstladepistole ("universal self-loading pistol")^[42]
  


• 
  VP = Volkspistole ("people's pistol")


• 
  ZF = Zielfernrohr ("telescopic sight")^[43]
  

See also

• List of Heckler & Koch products


• List of modern armament manufacturers

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heckler & Koch.

• Official website (international)


• Official website (United States)


• 2008 Heckler & Koch Military and LE brochure


• HK information on Remtek