Germany’s new rifle ‘inaccurate in battle’

Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, has tried to reshape the country’s military – RONNY HARTMANN/AFP/Getty Images

The German army’s new assault rifle is not accurate enough and cannot be relied upon to work properly in battle, according to a classified report.

The Bundeswehr was forced to lower testing standards for its G95A1 after it failed to pass trials using military-standard ammunition, said the report, which was sent to the Bundestag by Germany’s national audit office.

“Current testing by the army in laboratory conditions shows that the weapon doesn’t meet army standards when loaded with combat ammunition,” said the review, which was first revealed by Der Spiegel news magazine.

“The army requires an assault rifle that is sufficiently accurate under real conditions with its combat ammunition,” the report said. The defence ministry, it added, “can no longer ensure this… due to a modified contract with the weapon manufacturer”.

The army’s procurement department allowed gunmaker Heckler & Koch to test the weapon using civilian ammunition, rather than the same cartridges used by the army.

Testing was also allowed to take place at room temperature rather than at extreme temperatures.

The rifle has been ordered as a replacement for the G36, which was also built by Heckler & Koch and became mired in scandal during its service life.

The G36 extensively utilises plastic in its construction, but German troops serving in Afghanistan began complaining that their weapons would lose accuracy after sustained firing.

The defence ministry’s investigation found that, during  shooting, a plastic channel that the barrel sits in would heat up and become soft, leaving it out of alignment.

In 2015, a Bundeswehr survey found that only 8 per cent of German soldiers trusted their weapons, and Ursula von der Leyen, then defence minister, ditched the G36.

Germany’s army of 180,000 soldiers was supposed to start receiving their new weapon next year.

The country’s latest small arms problems come as it struggles to re-equip an army that the defence minister has admitted is ill-prepared for war.

Concerns over the new weapon’s accuracy are not shared among the country’s troops, Der Spiegel reported.

Germany’s elite KSK troops are equipped with the G95A1 and have had no complaints, the magazine reported.

Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defence minister who has been in office for a year, has pledged to make the army “war fit” after reports emerged that it only had enough ammunition to fight a war for two days.

However, his attempts to reshape a defence force blighted by sclerotic bureaucracy and outdated equipment have so far failed to produce major results.

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