The German Army finally got themselves a new Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR), and naturally, a german company makes it for them. A few hundred H&K G28 DMRs were ordered and sporting a chromed-lined 16.5" RECCE barrel which many say as the new standard for DMRs. While it is a direct descendant of the HK416/417 rifles, its design was originally intended for the civilian market, rather than for military and law enforcement. You might wonder why a civilian version got adopted by the German Army.

Heckler & Kock initially offered the HK417 as the DMR for the Bundeswehr, but it was rejected as they did not find it to be accurate enough for their needs. What the Bundeswehr then did was ask for the H&K MR308 which is a semi-firing 7.62 rifle that was designed as a civilian match rifle. The H&K M308 is known as the H&K MR762A1 for the US civilian market and with optics such as the Schmidt & Bender 3-20x50.

Weighing 7.9 kilograms on an empty magazine, which means it is a heavy rifle (heavier then the MK14 EBR which weighs 5.1kg), the G28 has a length of 980mm and is said to have the option of being converted into a lighter weapon which will be the Patrol Configuration that shaves 1.6kg off its original weight and closer to the original H&K MR308 design.  The Standard Configuration seems to have an telescopic stock with an adjustable cheek pad while the Patrol Configuration doesn't have the cheek pad. With a repeatable accuracy of 1.5 MOA, it can give precise shooting against man-size targets up to 800 meters. This is not compatible with the upper and lower receivers of the HK417 but for the rest of its parts, they are interchangeable with the HK417, even with the 7.62x51mm NATO standard. The accessories for this apart from the Schmidt & Bender PMIII 3-20x50 scope are the following:

• Schmidt & Bender PMII 1-8x24 telescopic sight
• Aimpoint Micro T1 Redo dot sight
• Laser light module LLM01-RAL8000
• Night sight Qioptiq Merlin LR
• Thermal sight Insight CNVD-T3
• Laser range finder Jenoptik HLR15

I wonder if VFC will come up with an airsoft version of the G28, given its close working relationship with Umarex (apart from Ares Airsoft). Since they developed the airsoft HK416 and new gas blowback H&K rifles under license by Umarex, they can do some quick molding and retooling to come up with the G28, and having a wider magazine to meet the 7.62 magazine design.