The MP5 is a 9 mm submachine gun of German design, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the West German arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch GmbH (H&K) of Oberndorf am Neckar. The company, motivated by the success of the G3 automatic rifle, developed a family of small arms consisting of four types of firearms (all based on a common G3 design layout and operating principle). Work on the MP5 began in 1964 and scarcely two years later it was adopted by the German Federal Police, border guard and army special forces. It is currently used by the armed forces and law enforcement units of over 40 different countries. The MP5 remains one of the most widely deployed of all current submachine guns and has been developed into a family with numerous variants.

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