Another user replacing his bullpub.

https://soldat-und-technik.de/2023/05/bewaffnung/34679/luxemburg-beschafft-sturmgewehre-von-heckler-und-koch/

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg wants to modernise the handguns of its armed forces and has therefore contracted Heckler & Koch to supply various assault rifles with a total value of around ten million euros.
[...]
The new assault rifles are to replace the Steyr AUG A1 ordnance weapons that have been in use for decades. As Heckler & Koch confirmed to Soldat & Technik upon request, the company will equip the Luxembourg army with assault rifles of the type HK416 A7 (in barrel lengths of 11 and 14.5 inches) in calibre 5.56 mm x 45.

Luxemburg has fallen once again to the German war machine. 

Gone is their signature look of superiority.

The HK 416's march across Europe looks unstoppable. 

From a German point of view, it is the AR15 march that is unstoppable. 

OK, HK did a lot(!) of work towards seriously improving reliability (fine magazine design details, for example), operating life and gas system. But it remains AR15 based, not really a German design.   

I predict a major panic once even level III body armor begins to be regularly encountered by those with shorter-barreled rifles.   Especially with 5.56x45, a few inches of barrel length often makes the difference in being able to defeat body armor.  Quite a few Buffman YouTube videos show this.  Once militaries begin to realize the need to switch to 100% tungsten core, they will discover it is too expensive and difficult to source (China and Russia have over 50% of the worlds known tungsten reserves).   I suspect that bullpups will suddenly begin to looks much more attractive.

JPeelen said:

From a German point of view, it is the AR15 march that is unstoppable.  OK, HK did a lot(!) of work towards seriously improving reliability (fine magazine design details, for example), operating life and gas system. But it remains AR15 based, not really a German design

Perhaps a bit of both.

The AR15 is really taking over the world, crushing all alternate rifle designs beneath it. Pretty much the only 5.56 countries not fielding AR's are countries with their own 'domestic champion' Arms House who have an alternate rifle design (Italy with the ARX 100, Belgium SCAR, AUGstria, CZ Bren).

But the German HK 416 has been by far the most successful AR15 derivative in terms of 21st century military contracts and adoption. 

I wouldn't be surprised if we see Britain replace their L85 with the HK 416 at some point. 

gatnerd said:

The HK 416's march across Europe looks unstoppable.

Well using Luxembourg military as an argument for that seems far fetched... since they have a strength of less than 1000 personel.

The march of HK is not unstoppable because of the 416 but because they are basically the only one left. The 416 is just the product they are currently selling. If HK would be selling a bullpub version of the G36 currently this would be marching across Europe.

HK BTW is now trying to introduce the HK 433 into the marked as a 416 replacement. The 433 is specifically designed to replace the 416 and has some improvements and solutions that adress common critizism of the 416.

JPeelen said:

From a German point of view, it is the AR15 march that is unstoppable.

Not really. The HK416 really is a AR18 that pretends to be an AR15.

Its also pure chance. The 433 was not picked by the German army in favor of the 416 due to some technicallities and the main argument that "we know the 416" since it has been in use by our SF. Who will most likely transition to the 433 once they used up their current stock of 416 based rifles. After all the 433 has been designed to their specs and to adress their wishes for improvement.
It again just a case of the bureaucracy screwing up.

gatnerd said:

I wouldn't be surprised if we see Britain replace their L85 with the HK 416 at some point.

Currently the L85 get an upgrade by HK. So it will be in service for some more years. When the L85 replacement will become a thing in 5 or so years HK will be selling the next generation of their products. So the chance that the UK will transition to the 416 are rather slim unless they hurry.

The thing of most interest from the video posted in the NGSW thread was that the XM7 bare gun is 2 oz lighter than the MR556 with 16"bbl - the configuration that matches the M27. This was quite unexpected. The takeaway probably should be that the M27 is excessively heavy, but still the XM7 is not as much of an increase in weight as I and probably others expected.

schnuersi said:

Not really. The HK416 really is a AR18 that pretends to be an AR15.

I figure HK got experience on AR18 style systems while working on the L85 and decided to use it as their basis for future weapons.

So the 416 is the revenge of the AR18 and the L85 on the AR15.