As Bundeswehr's standard gun, the G36 rifle, will be phased out soon. The German army's efforts to acquire a new standard automatic weapon have been delayed as gun manufacturers failed to provide suitable bids.According to the procurement office, the comparative tests in the following seven months revealed that none of the guns presented by the various weapons manufacturers fulfilled the “individual mandatory requirements.”

Gun manufacturers now have until February 2019 to correct their products' flaws and submit their guns for re-examination. As a result, the German army's timeline for the phasing in of the new weapon has been delayed by about eight months and added some €750,000 to the project's tab.

Auditors found, for example, that weapons firms only submitted rifles with a 5.56 millimetre calibre despite the fact that some units in the army had required a larger 7.62 millimetre calibre weapon.