SHAH ALAM: Have HK will travel. It appears that the MMEA Special Tasks and Rescue (STAR) team has finally gotten their Heckler & Koch HK416 A5 assault rifles it had sought since 2014. An unknown number of the AR were delivered recently together with the HK SFP9 semi-automatic pistols, the agency said in a Facebook post.
It is unclear whether the firearms were selected by MMEA under a new tender or it was just a continuance of the old decision. Anyhow, the post said the STAR team was familiarising with the recently delivered firearms and both were found suitable for the MMEA’s job scope in terms reliability and functionality. It even said the blast of the firearms were so dynamic “it will even terrify the enemy”.
As I had previously reported that even the military and the police had trouble in getting the export permits to get HK firearms, I sent an email to the company for clarification.
I got a response, among others said that both firearms delivered to MMEA were indeed manufactured by HK in Germany. It said Malaysian government agencies had never had trouble in getting HK firearms as they “will be subject to import permit and export permit by both government authorities.” This of course did not explain the reason wny the MMEA only got their guns after five years.
MMEA tender in 2014 for the HK416.
MMEA is now the only Malaysian government agency which had taken delivery of HK firearms since RMN’s special forces unit, PASKAL took delivery of the HK416s and HK417s around 2010 and 2012. And with the delivery of the HK guns to MMEA, I think my post in 2016 is redundant now.
In the post I wrote that since the Special Forces units was unable to get HK firearms – despite even stating it in their tender documents – it was time to find other makes. Indeed even the MMEA had even bought the ADCOR Elite 556 for the STAR team though they were mostly seen carrying the Swiss Arms SIG-553s during parades, exercises and during operations.
It is conceivable with MMEA getting the HK416s, the other Special Forces units from the police – UTK, VAT69 and Ungerin and the military – GGK and Paskal – which had bought other ARs despite their preference for the HK ARs – will likely try to buy them.
However, this must be done via open competition as mandated by the current government. Whether or not the HK firearms will be competitive in terms of pricing is beyond me.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (20)
What is so special about HK 416? M4 should be sufficient.
Being a rifle operating from a gas cylinder n rod blow back rather than direct gas impingment ala SLR , its more reliable n accurate
Lee Yoke Meng "Being a rifle operating from a gas cylinder n rod blow back rather than direct gas impingment ala SLR , its more reliable n accurate"
All things equal, a direct impingement design will have better accuracy than a piston design because the piston contacts the bolt carrier more forcefully than a jet of gas.
As to reliability, real world usage has not indicated significant problems. Direct impingement weapons do have to be cleaned and lubricated more often than a piston design, but the process takes all of five minutes and hasn't posed a problem for millions of soldiers.
But if we wanted a piston design, the question to ask is why we selected the M4 for the MAF.
One wonders too why the police bought only a small number of piston weapons (Colt APC) before switching back to direct impingement ones (Colt ACC-M). Or for that matter, why they chose to buy Bushmasters and why these had to be replaced just a few short years later. Or why they got to select anything over the M4, which is supposedly our standard rifle and which we've paid handsomely for.
See malaysiandefence.com/colt-apc-to-replace-bushmaster-m4s/ and malaysiandefence.com/pga-getting-new-guns-dsa-2018-shorts/
Reply
I have no idea why they bought the Bushmasters, but once put into service the Bushies were found to be fragile and prone to breakages while in service which led to the decision to buy new guns.
The rightmost UTK operator in the last picture is holding a Ferfrans SOAR carbine with Aimpoint Micro T1 optic and a magnifier.
As for the Bushmaster carbines, O believe the problems can be attributed to poor quality control, combined with a less durable polymer reciever (later guns recieved an aluminium upper reciever as a pallative measure), and the gas key being incorrectly adjusted.
BTW, installing a gas piston in an AR isn't necessarily a marked improvement; I distinctly recall Larry Vickers discussing the HK416's development with Ian McCollum, and he noted that HK had to reinforce the part of the bolt carrier contacting with the gas piston rod, due to accelerated wear and tear.
Lee - “the question to ask is why we selected the M4 for the MAF”
Because the agreement with SME and Steyr went ratshit and because Colt not only allowed us local production/assembly but also the possibility of export. We actually fooled ourselves into thinking we could export any.
Yes its true..piston driven type rifle ar much efficent n accurate...further more for those SOF who uses water medium as their insertion point being piston driven the rifle is always at aready to be fired without worrying the rifle is drowned by water..my take
Gun Autist: good observation.
It's comical that that guy has a dummy grenade hanging from his chest by the spoon.
@ AM
You can also see the twin magazine clipped to the SOAR is empty.
Off topic
Seems that the DWP is now deferred to December.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2019/10/01/defence-white-paper-to-be-tabled-in-december/
Off topic
Seems that the DWP is now deferred to December.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2019/10/01/defence-white-paper-to-be-tabled-in-december/
Weapons directly imported from Germany requires massive amounts of scrutiny and deliberations from their Government. This takes a LOTTT of time and end results often may not pass. Which is why many German arms maker go thru 3rd parties to speed up the deal (ie Rheinmetall working with Denel).