The soldiers of the 82nd Air Assault Brigade received Haenel MK 556 rifles, known from a scandalous German defense contract.

Photos of the soldiers with the new weapons have been posted online.

The Haenel MK 556 assault rifles were donated by the German government as part of international military assistance. Initially, they were ordered by the German Armed Forces, but due to patent infringements, the contract was canceled and the rifles were removed to storage.

The MK556 (Maschinenkarabiner 556) was developed by a small German company Haenel on the basis of the common American AR-15 automatic rifle in the standard 5.56×45-mm caliber for NATO countries.

Unlike the original system, the German rifle was fitted with a more practical automatic system with a short gas piston stroke and a gas regulator.

The paratroopers received the rifle in a standard “German” configuration with an angled forend holder, a retractable multi-mode stock and a collimator sight.

According to the failed defense contract, Haenel was supposed to produce 120,000 rifles for the Bundeswehr at a total cost of €245 million. However, due to the refusal to continue cooperation, only 5,000 units were produced.

As of July 2024, 2,425 rifles have been handed over to the Ukrainian military with plans to transfer all batches produced for the German Armed Forces.

A significant number of MK 556s were also transferred to Ukrainian units of the Special Operations Forces and the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine. In particular, rifles with original Haenel silencers were spotted in their possession.

Despite the significant number of units already delivered, the 82nd Brigade continues to use weapons in several calibers: Soviet 5.45mm and Western 5.56mm.

Last month, the Come Back Alive Foundation delivered a batch of Fort-600 40mm hand-held grenade launchers to the brigade.

The batch of 40 single-shot hand grenade launchers worth UAH 1,399,440 was manufactured by the Ukrainian State Scientific and Production Association “Fort”.