Basically: Rheinmetall and Steyr-Mannlicher were cooperating with a design for a weapon for the Bundeswehr contract to repalce the G36. They already had a rifle ready. The deadline to mail in their application was yesterday (8th of January 2018, 23:59:59). Rheinmetall/Steyr-Mannlicher refused to send in a rifle of their design, essentially withdrawing from the contest. Previously SigSauer had also withdrawn, presumably leaving only H&K, and possibly foreign (European) manufacturers. Domestic manufacturers will however presumably be preferred, because nobody wants to deal with having to send all your arms across borders for repairs/replacements.
It's still not 100% certain that the HK433 will win, but something around 90% would be a good guess.
Pictures: HK433 (H&K rifle that entered the competition) RS 556 (Rheinmetall/Steyr-Mannlicher rifle that didn't enter the competition)
Is there anyone who honestly believes that it's not just a scheme to bail out H&K? I'm sure even the other team knew that, and it was just an opportunity to market that AUG turned into an AR-15.
Well, the CEO of SigSauer said that there were some pretty shifty things going on. augengeradeaus.net/2017/11/g36-nachfolger-sigsauer-zieht-angebot-zurueck/ The whole ITAR thing kind of fucked Sig over, because they are partially foreign. Rheinmetall did not yet comment on "why" they decided not to join.
Jeremiah Flores
No. I don't even believe the HK433 isn't a modernized HK33…
Adam Campbell
HK33 is roller delayed while the HK433 is a short stroke rotating bolt design (like the G36). HK abandoned roller delayed systems quite some time ago. They also seem to have dropped the carry handle and top charging handle, which makes sense. I liked the top charging handle, but the carry handle we were never allowed to use anyways, so it was simply one massive hindrance because you would need a weapon specialist to mount different optics on your gun, which made the entire thing unpractical to use in any other role than basic infantry. At least they kept a scifi A E T H E T I C S.
Connor Nguyen
Until I have seen one field striped, I will remain unconvinced. Because if you play on words a roller delayed gun is a "short gas piston" gun and they look way too close for comfort.
The receiver is indeed rather strange. I've heard that it's extruded aluminium, but if that's true then it needs some machining to end up like this. And you don't need these ribs on the sides if you just want to use a glorified AR-18 mechanism. But if it's indeed roller delayed then I can see the merit here.
you'd hope it's just machined rather than extruded, since that's purely a cost-saving process and offers only disadvantages to durability. the 433 is kinda cool, and kinda disappointing in a kike spacegun way, the exterior has consolations to looks over function.
Christopher Collins
Looks like some kind of retarded Halo LARP gun. Why don't they make firearms look like firearms anymore?
