Heckler & Koch MP5
Country of origin
Germany
Germany
ManufacturerHeckler & Koch
The Heckler & Koch MP5 (German: Maschinenpistole 5, lit. 'Submachine gun 5') is a submachine gun developed in the 1960s by German firearms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. It uses a similar modular design to the Heckler & Koch G3, and has over 100 variants and clones, including select fire, semi-automatic, suppressed, compact and even marksman variants. The MP5 is one of the most widely used submachine guns in the world, having been adopted by over forty nations and numerous militaries, police forces, intelligence agencies, security organizations, paramilitaries and non-state actors.
Attempts at replacing the MP5 by Heckler & Koch began in the 1980s, but despite functional prototypes having promising performance, a formal successor did not enter commercial production until 1999, when the Heckler & Koch UMP was developed. However, despite being more expensive, the MP5 remained the more successful of the two designs, because of its preexisting widespread use, design familiarity and lower recoil due to its roller-delayed action as opposed to the UMP's straight blowback action.
Attempts at replacing the MP5 by Heckler & Koch began in the 1980s, but despite functional prototypes having promising performance, a formal successor did not enter commercial production until 1999, when the Heckler & Koch UMP was developed. However, despite being more expensive, the MP5 remained the more successful of the two designs, because of its preexisting widespread use, design familiarity and lower recoil due to its roller-delayed action as opposed to the UMP's straight blowback action.
