Polish Police Counter-Terrorist Units Will Receive A Batch Of New Assault Rifles

The new carbines are going to be delivered by the Warsaw-based Cenrex company which, outside the area of armament supplies, also deals with delivering the engineering equipment, ballistic protection systems and electronic warfare suites. Cenrex placed its offer in an open tender, organized by the General Police Headquarters of Poland.

The Polish operators of the counter-terrorist units are going to receive the short barrel variant of the HK416 A5 carbine. Barrel length in case of the acquired weapon is 11 inches; 14.5”, 16.5” and 20” barrels are also available in the product range offered by the Heckler & Koch company. The barrel cover is going to, most probably, be fitted on all of its sides with the Picatinny rails, compliant with the NATO STANAG 4694 norm (however, “Key-Mod” mounting system could have been used on the sides of the weapon). The same rail is going to be installed on the top of the receiver.

The carbine is going to be fitted with a front grip, winter trigger guard, back pistol grip with a compartment for the weapon maintenance tools, along with an enlarged reloading handle.

The 11 inch-long barrel is going to be fitted with a flash suppressor. Secondly, the ending of the barrel is going to make it possible to quickly utilize the silencer. The telescopic stock is going to, most probably, be fitted with a three-step regulation system. The weapon is designed to use a 30 round, steel, double-stack magazine; however, it should also be compatible with all of the M4/M6 system magazines, both metal ones, as well as those made out of plastic.

Each of the guns is going to be delivered in a package, consisting of the carbine itself, EOTech 552 Laser Battery Cap sight, 10 magazines and 10 magazine rubbers, making it easier to reach for the magazine (comparative with MAGPUL No. MAG001), a tactical MAGPUL MS3 Sling 2 Gen strap, MAGPUL ASAP MAG500 handle, maintenance and cleaning kit, sound suppressor (not worse than ROTEX-V No. 967251), casings interceptor, toolkit for basic maintenance, transport boxes and UTM (or FX) kit, making it possible to carry out training with the use of training rounds.

The new carbines are most probably going to have a specification compliant with the latest variants of the HK416 weapon, including all of the changes that have been implemented by the manufacturer throughout the last two years, i.e. the changes which make it possible to use the weapon by the left- and right-handed persons (modified way of changing the magazines, reloading and modified safety switch, along with a new carrying strap mount). The front sight (used once the optical sight fails) is going to be have an option of being folded, however, this procedure is going to be realized in a safer way – in the previous variant of the gun the sight was folded on the gas tube, thus it often could have been broken. The back sight is going to be folded rearwards, in a standard manner. A modernized, regulated gas tube is yet another new element of the carbine, which is being used when the user would like to utilize a suppressor. The regulator used now is easier to handle, since it does not require any tools for operation.

We shall recall the fact that ever since the moment when the HK416 was released onto the market – back in 2005 – it has become a favourite carbine of the special forces and counter-terrorist units. In Poland, the weapon is being used by the special forces, Central Anticorruption Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation and by the Counter-terrorist Operations Bureau of the General Police Headquarters. The carbine is a gas-operated weapon, utilizing the .223 round, and it is capable of reaching the rate of fire of 850 rounds per minute.