MP5, Holger-26, AUG: Are Call of Duty Weapons Real?

There have been hundreds and hundreds of Call of Duty weapons throughout the years. Sure, many are repeats (at the time of writing, we've had six MP5s) and some are pretty absurd, but are CoD weapons actually real? Well, yes and no. Maybe it would be more accurate to call them 'inspired by' – but we'll get to that. We'll still take a look at a few CoD weapons in this article and compare them with their real counterparts.This is a harder question to answer now. In the days of Call of Duty 4, Activision bought the license to use the correct name for every weapon and based them more accurately off the real-world equivalents. But this practice is effectively over in the industry, and now almost no shooters have the licenses. So what kind of middle ground are we looking at?

MP5

The MP5 is in pretty much every shooter, and it's probably one of the most famous weapons of all time. Everyone who has seen an action film or played a shooter knows of this iconic submachine gun.

Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War both included an MP5, so (somewhat bizarrely) we've actually got two of them to choose from.

In Call of Duty, this weapon is known for its precision, relatively good range and for its ease-of-use. Many players consider it perhaps the best SMG in the game for this reason, as they can take on any assault rifle in multiplayer. But what about its real-life counterpart?

The real MP5 was developed by the German weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch after the Second World War and is used in over 50 countries around the world, primarily by police and special forces. The development began in 1964 and after numerous revisions, it is still in use worldwide today. Alongside the Uzi, it is the most widespread submachine gun of all time.In addition to the standard model MP5A, there are two main variants sold by H&K, the MP5K (a smaller, more mobile version with a cut down barrel) and the MP5SD (integrally suppressed). In all cases, the weapon is chambered in 9mm Parabellum and uses a roller-delayed blowback system, firing from a closed bolt position. It's exactly those mechanical choices that make this SMG so accurate and easy to fire in real-life. And according to the German Bundeswehr, the weapon can be used at a distance of up to 200 meters.So yes, the MP5 in Call of Duty is a real weapon, and the precision, low-recoil, and decent range characteristics in-game are all authentic to the actual weapon.

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Holger-26

The Holger-26 was introduced as a light machine gun in Modern Warfare, but it's especially versatile, and can be configured into any number of roles. With the right attachments, the Holger can be converted into an SMG, an assault rifle, or an LMG. And in any of these configurations, the Holger-26 has impressively low recoil.

But does the Holger-26 exist in real life? Well, this is where it gets a little more complicated. A weapon called Holger doesn't exist, but that doesn't mean much, since game manufacturers have abandoned licensing (in the case of some weapons, the names aren't specific enough to be copyrighted, hence MP5 is fine to use). In the case of the Holger, the weapon is actually based on a real weapon again, but this weapon is not available as an LMG.

The similarity between the Holger-26 and the G36 are easy to see. The G36 assault rifle was also developed by Heckler and Koch. Development began in the 1970s with the HK36, which was the basis for various other models, but ultimately led to the G36. The G36 is the standard infantryman rifle of the German Bundeswehr and is particularly light thanks to the heavy use of polymers. The materials used to manufacture the weapon caused a small controversy in the 90s when the G36 was accused of literally 'melting' after sustained periods of automatic fire, but that's a story for another day.

Like the MP5, the rifle is very versatile and can be equipped with a drum magazine. However, it was developed as an assault rifle and not a light machine gun.

So we can say that the Holger-26 is inspired by a real weapon, but it's classified in the wrong weapon class. The G36 is an assault rifle that can theoretically be equipped with a drum magazine and would therefor correspond to the Holger-26, but it is ultimately an assault rifle.

AUG

Both weapons are based on the Austrian Steyr AUG – the standard infantryman rifle for both Austrian and Australian armed forces. The AUG was designed as part of a generation of modern bullpups, alongside the SA80 and the FAMAS. The barrel and trigger group can be changed relatively easily, so the assault rifle can effectively become a submachine gun.

Unlike in-game, though, the weapon can switch between three different fire modes, semi-automatic, burst, and fully automatic – it isn't restricted to one or the other. The AUG was very modern in implementing a two-stage trigger to switch between firing modes, although multi-stage triggers have since fallen out of fashion.

So the AUG, in both games, is a fairly reliable reconstruction for the actual AUG in many respects, although strictly, it should be classed as an assault rifle, and should not be restricted to any firing mode.

There are, of course, numerous other weapons, but we've only picked three as examples. Overall, we would say Activision's weapons in Call of Duty are pretty close to real weapons and usually only change small things. Sure, you can't compare the recoil in-game with real rifles, but appearance, function, and rate of fire have always been done accurately.

However, it has become more and more noticeable that well-known weapons appear under fantasy names in the game: Holger-26, Fennek, Diamatti, and many more. Which is a shame, licensing firearms really did give the weapons that extra satisfaction.