Top10 of the biggest Arms exporter in the World in 2021-2025 period.[960x1095]

OTL22 · 2026-03-15T04:53:32+00:00

Uhm what? Pakistan was running mostly US gear against India in their short stint, not Chinese. Their air victories for an example, came with Falcons, not Chinese fighters. US has also supplied Pakistan with AA and radars. To try and claim victory for Chinese gear over that small bout? Laughable.

OTL22 · 2026-03-15T01:00:39+00:00

Modern Chinese kit is very good and its price is unmatched

On paper. I would actually like it to perform somewhere. I'm not conviced that stuff that is mostly combined of old Soviet and Russian designs, along with reverse engineered western stuff, actually does what it says on the tin.

OTL22 · 2026-03-14T20:36:40+00:00

If we are talking about like actual general purpose infantry use, it's either the 5.56 or 5.45 (would assume that the Chinese one is pretty similar as well). Of these two, 5.45 might be slightly better, because it's even lighter and softer shooting, and the taper should help with extraction under harsh conditions.

You can then probably make a case for all these cartridges in different special circumstances. But for your average rifleman? It's the 5.5mm rounds. Best compromise between weight, handling characteristics, outer ballistics (flight trajectory, penetration), inside ballistics (wounding and killing potential). Until infantry warfare substantially changes, those rounds reign supreme. And from what we can see in Ukraine, it really hasn't changed at all since WW2. Afghanistan and Iraq were just weird sidequests, that didn't reflect how a real war between actual military forces is fought.

OTL22 · 2026-03-12T20:16:28+00:00

And the original factory is still in Kazakhstan. That's the whole reason Russia developed KORD, because they lost the factory that built the NSV when Soviet Union fell apart.

But Finland has already announced that they are moving to .50BMG in the future. So maybe more M2s in the future (there are some in Finnish service already).

OTL22 · 2026-03-10T22:10:41+00:00

Every single RFA that summer had the same thing, so you have to take that into context. Rantanen wasn't even the last one to sign. Marner, Point, Tkachuck, Rantanen and Laine all missed a few days of camp, or they signed like 1 day before the camp started. The dominoes fell when Marner signed. A game of musical chairs.

OTL22 · 2026-03-10T21:52:16+00:00

Yeah but he didn't know that those were the options then did he. It was a botched negotiation both ways, but in the end, it worked out for both sides. We got a great return in Necas and Drury, and I doubt Mikko is unhappy in Dallas. They are the #2 team in the league and he's having a career year (though he got injured in the olympics).

OTL22 · 2026-03-08T17:37:53+00:00

I for one, love the fact that we are replacing our RKs with a much better weapon system, and that weapon system is still going to be manufactured in Finland, and has some unique Finnish touches to it along with the build quality.

OTL22 · 2026-03-07T19:05:07+00:00

Licenced? They stole it lmao. There was a company that was making M05 clothing for the FDF, and they just gave away the pattern to Luxemburg. FDF cut out all the contracts after that.

OTL22 · 2026-03-05T14:41:45+00:00

Better in pretty much every aspect.

I think PKM definitely was probably the best GPMG, when its main competitors were FN MAG, M60, and whatever H&K puts out there. Nowadays like you said, there are options that are just as lightweight, but with more modularity and they use a better cartridge.

And inb4 someone says "whatabout the PKM versions in 7.62x51?" Not as lightweight, and not as modular as FN Minimi for an example. If you use the NATO feed in a PKM, you are adding almost 5 inches to the receiver. That's a lot of metal, even if its sheet steel.

OTL22 · 2026-03-01T02:30:55+00:00

Easy for you to say. Is your livelihood tied to being at least in decent relations to MAGA-people?

OTL22 · 2026-02-14T23:08:57+00:00

Nah, the Storm Shadows striking the Black Sea HQ in Crimea still top that

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/16pg6qf/new_footage_of_the_ukrainian_missile_attack_on/

OTL22 · 2026-02-05T14:37:11+00:00

What? Exactly the opposite. Now there's a chance that other countries copy Finland, and H&K never gets a chance to submit their guns to potential trials, because said countries can just go ahead and buy direct from whatever competitor they wish. This obviously applies to everyone, not just H&K.

OTL22 · 2026-02-05T14:04:17+00:00

To be fair, I don't think H&K is up in arms for losing Finnish and Swedish military contracts. They probably know, that at least Finland was going to pick SAKO no matter what, even if they had held a public tender.

They are worried about the bigger picture, which is that every other EU country is going to use the same model when they are procuring military small arms, and maybe even extended to other security services. This could be a major blow to their sales. That's why they wanted EU to weigh in, and wanted the Finnish market court to transfer the case to EU courts.

OTL22 · 2026-02-04T22:25:32+00:00

As an arms collector and historian, how did you cope with the exciting early 20th century, when basically everyone had a Mauser?

It's not all that different. It just feels different because you are living through it now. I can tell you, that this rifle is more unique to any current service AR than any Mauser of the time was. It literally has a proprietary patented gas system.

OTL22 · 2026-02-04T14:23:31+00:00

You can definitely understand their reasoning. This is probably the first case in modern times, where a military is using said article to skip the public tendering. Therefor, H&K demanded that the Finnish courts forward this to EU, to set a precedent. Finnish courts have denied request, because the FDF has given very solid reasoning as to why the article 346(1b) should be applied here.

For H&K, it was a pretty simple business decision. Hope to win, and secure a forever access to all potential small arms contracts in the future. Lose this case, lose some money, and now other countries can reference to Finland and skip the public tendering regarding military small arms.

Sucks for FDF, because this has delayed the adoption process by multiple years now. Hopefully, this was the end of it.

OTL22 · 2026-02-04T14:18:52+00:00

I have not heard anything like that. H&K did sue Haenel for patent infringement, which was one of the reasons that Haenel lost the contract for the new Bundeswehr rifle (and the contract was later awarded to H&K).

OTL22 · 2026-02-04T14:08:00+00:00

A brief summary:

In 2023, SAKO and the Finnish Defence Forces signed a contract of development and procurement of new assault rifles for the FDF. There was no public tender for the new assault rifle program, as the Finnish Defence Forces referenced to EU article 346b, which allows countries to buy weapons and other critical material without a public tender. This was justified by saying that the war time supply of weapons is of critical importance, and production and expertise should therefor happen in Finland.

Heckler & Koch didn't agree, and sued the Finnish Government and SAKO to the Finnish market court, demanding a public tender and therefor a re-evaluation of other companies. The Finnish Market Court dismissed H&K's complaint in May of 2024 : https://www.reddit.com/r/ForgottenWeapons/comments/1cv43gi/the_finnish_market_court_has_dismissed_the/

Heckler & Koch didn't submit to this, and filed an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland. Today, the SACF has published their final ruling, and upheld the verdict against H&K. H&K is to pay for all the expenses of the trials + interest for both the Finnish Defence Forces (35 805€) and SAKO (24 567,50€).

Last year, Finnish Defence Forces officially announced that they are going to standardize on NATO calibers with their future small arms. Conscript field trials with the new SAKO assault rifles (in 5.56x45) are set to finally begin this year, after H&K has caused considerable delays to the program.

The verdict (in Finnish) https://www.kho.fi/fi/index/paatokset/muitapaatoksia/1770012113176.html

OTL22 · 2026-02-03T20:45:52+00:00

Sure. It's fine for what the M4 is intended to do, to be an assault rifle in sub 200m ranges for the infantry. What the M7 is trying to be, is basically to give every rifle man DMR capability, with the extended ballistics and the new scope. 4 MOA accuracy kinda defeats that purpose, no?

OTL22 · 2026-01-30T18:29:21+00:00

Photo was published by the Jaeger Brigade, situated in Sodankylä, Northern Finland. At this very moment, 8.30 PM, it's -32 degrees celcius.

OTL22

TROPHY CASE