“Glorious 416 action.” (Photo: Innsatsstyrke Derby HV-02/Aimpoint/H&K/Facebook)
Famed small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch, or H&K, fired its CEO Norbert Scheuch and removed him from the company’s executive board. Heckler & Koch is at a crucial turning point for the company and the change of leadership could dramatically affect its outcomes.
“The supervisory board of H&K AG, the parent company of the Heckler & Koch Group … has revoked the appointment of Mr. Norbert Scheuch as Chairman of the Executive Board and as Chief Executive Officer of H&K AG with immediate effect,” said the company in an official statement. “The appointment of Mr. Norbert Scheuch as executive director of Heckler & Koch GmbH was also revoked with immediate effect.”
“Until the appointment of a successor in the near future, Mr. Wolfgang Hesse, the sole executive board member of H&K AG and the sole executive director of Heckler & Koch GmbH, will take over Mr. Scheuch’s duties, in close cooperation with the supervisory board.”
H&K may be pointing in a new direction. Hopefully they pick a good one. (Photo: H&K)
From an American consumer standpoint, things are going great for Heckler & Koch. The company introduced several compelling and competitive new products of late that work well with the rest of the H&K catalog.
H&K’s introduction of the VP family of pistols has been their biggest recent success. The VP family of service pistols for duty, everyday carry and concealed-carry saw immediate success in commercial and agency sales.
H&K is also working on an American manufacturing facility to expand their sales in the U.S. Making guns in the states helps avoid issues with firearm importation laws. It also makes the guns more appealing to American buyers, including military and police users.
When it comes to military contracts Heckler & Koch’s sales have been mixed. The company has a solid performer in high demand with the U.S. Marine Corps, the M27 IAR. However, H&K, partnering with Orbital ATK, failed to deliver experimental weapon components to the Army in time to secure a major contract.
See Also: Marines Looking to Order 50,000 More H&K IAR Support Rifles
Heckler & Koch and ATK were working on an exciting — but questionably effective — new weapon system for the Army, the XM25. Nicknamed the “Punisher,” the XM25 was a portable magazine-fed grenade launcher. The launcher used a laser rangefinder to exactly determine the distance to the target, and it used that information to program individual grenades to detonate directly above targets behind cover.
While the XM25 worked well, it was also heavy with limited ammo capacity. Soldiers carrying a Punisher could not also carry a rifle into combat, compromising units in extended engagements. The supply issues, along with its limited usefulness and ultimately budget cuts, put an end to the XM25’s development.
Even though the Army suspended the XM25 project, things have been looking up for Heckler & Koch. As long as the company keeps working on expanding sales in the U.S., and avoids future arms dealing controversies, this change in leadership should not prevent success.
The ideogram for “crisis” in China combines the signs for “danger” and “opportunity”. Just because SIGARMS (the US branch of the firm) has QA issues doesn’t mean a hypothetical H&K factory (beyond the one in Chantilly, VA). Browning P35s have been made in St. Louis, Herstal, Belgium and (for a while, anyway) Canada, with very little variation in quality between factories. I used to carry a John Inglis and Co. Hi-Power/P35 on duty and loved it. It’s possible if H&K makes weapons for the US civilian market, there could be QA issues. Is anyone aware of differences in quality in (say) FN-FALs and the sporterized semi-auto versions Browning made and sold in the US?
I don’t know what HKs problem is people pay thousand to turn a $2000 gun in to a copy of G36 and HK has never bothered to build any here?????? What are they thinking they’ve lost all future sales to the Bundeswehr so all that tooling an equipment will be mostly idle except for some of its international sales why haven’t they moved it here to make all the G36 series here and sell Civilian models and not have give a damn about 922r?????
In looking at the Sig USA made and the HK German made I concluded that the HK appeared to be of a higher quality handgun. My observation on fit, function ,and reliability . Just the way I see it!
Please keep making the H&K in Germany. The quality of Sig Sauer is definitely not as good since they now produce in US. Sig Sauer’s US quality is good, but I believe my German made Sigs are better. Years ago I never heard of Sig having recalls and problems like they do now.
My HK45 is made here and I don’t see any drop in quality. I’d even say the Zenith roller locked line up are more German then the 922r compliant ones as they have the third push pin and all there old equipment is a rusty alpine green with a faded HK logo on it.
they should take lessons from RUGER ! complete turn around now that Bill is gone ! HK & Colt are over priced , living on their name ! After market copys are just as good or BETTER at HALF THE PRICE