[Monthly Defense Times Editor-in-Chief An Seung-beom] The rifles used by our military and police counterterrorism units are the MP5 9mm submachine guns from the European company H&K. The MP5, first developed in 1964, was initially deployed in 1966 to the German (then West German) police and border guards. Having experienced real combat cases such as the 1977 Lufthansa Flight 181 hijacking and the 1980 Iranian Embassy hostage rescue operation (Operation Nimrod), it is used as the standard personal weapon by counterterrorism units worldwide.
The exact year of the MP5 submachine gun's first introduction in Korea is unclear. However, it is estimated to be just before the 1988 Olympics, and it has been operated as the main submachine gun by domestic counterterrorism units such as the Army Special Forces 707 Special Mission Group, Seoul Police Special Forces, and the Navy Special Warfare Flotilla's Special Mission Unit in the 1990s. The reason for using this rifle for over 30 years is that there is still no replacement model.
However, recently, our military and police have been ordering domestically produced rifles to replace the MP5.
Among the MP5s introduced domestically, besides the original German-made ones, there are reportedly Swiss or Pakistani license-produced versions, and quality issues have been raised particularly regarding the Pakistani license-produced models.
If replaced with a domestic model, the estimated required quantity is about 1,100 units. Candidates include the XK9 submachine gun developed by the domestic defense company S&T Motiv and the DSMG9 by Dasan Machineries. Some give higher marks to S&T Motiv's XK9, which has experience in developing and mass-producing the K7 suppressed submachine gun.
Both models are still in the development stage, and it is expected to take time before the final product is completed, reflecting the requirements of the user forces' ROC.
The prototype of the 9mm submachine gun XK9 developed by S&T Motiv initially started as the K7A1, which is the K7 with the suppressor removed, but later changed to a prototype shape closer to the MP5. It appears to be a model responding to the military's move to replace the 9mm submachine gun for counterterrorism with a domestically produced one. The shortened version of the XK9, the XK9C submachine gun, is also being developed by S&T Motiv and is evaluated as a potential alternative to shortened submachine guns like the MP5K or MP7A1.
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