The MPT ( tr, Millî Piyade Tüfeği, en, National Infantry Rifle) is a modular rifle family designed by

MKEK The Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation ( tr, Makina ve Kimya Endüstrisi or MKE for short), established in 1950, is a reorganization of government-controlled group of factories in Turkey that supplied the Turkish Armed Forces with mili ...

and produced by MKEK,

Sarsılmaz Arms Sarsilmaz Firearms Corp. (often referred to as 'Sars' for short) is a privately owned small arms manufacturer based in Düzce, Turkey. The company was founded in 1880 in the Ottoman Empire, and is the largest small arms manufacturer in Turkey. Sar ...

and Kalekalıp to meet the demands of the

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The current Chi ...

and to replace its aging rifles such as the

Heckler & Koch G3 The Heckler & Koch G3 (''Gewehr'' 3) is a 7.62×51mm NATO, select-fire battle rifle developed in the 1950s by the German armament manufacturer Heckler & Koch (H&K) in collaboration with the Spanish state-owned design and development agency CET ...

and

Heckler & Koch HK33 The Heckler & Koch HK33 is a 5.56mm assault rifle developed in the 1960s by West German armament manufacturer Heckler & Koch GmbH (H&K), primarily for export. Building on the success of their G3 design, the company developed a family of small ...

due to most of them being near the end of their service life. The MPT was designed for robust high altitude, all weather combat, capable of functioning in extreme hot and cold weather. The MKEK MPT is a rifle intended to take abuse and extreme mistreatment and still maintain high accuracy and reliability in order to survive in true battle environments. It made its first public appearance at the

Eurosatory Eurosatory is the largest international defence and security exhibition for land and airland that is held every two years in the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre, Paris, France. In 2022, it gathered over 1,700 exhibitors and over 62,000 vis ...

2014, ADEX 2014 and the MSPO 2014 events.

History

After the first prototypes were built in 2008 as the Mehmetçik-1 in

5.56×45mm NATO The 5.56×45mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 5.56 NATO, but often pronounced "five-five-six") is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge family developed in the late 1970s in Belgium by FN Herstal. It consists of the SS109, L110, and ...

, the rifle received negative feedback from Turkish soldiers testing it who reported that they preferred the

7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first been introduced in U.S. service fo ...

round which has far greater

stopping power Stopping power is the ability of a weapon – typically a ranged weapon such as a firearm – to cause a target (human or animal) to be incapacitated or immobilized. Stopping power contrasts with lethality in that it pertains only to a weapon's ...

and range similar to those of the existing G3 service rifles. The proposed Mehmetcik-1 was therefore cancelled after the first prototype and engineers started the redesign process. The first batch of 200 MPT-76s were delivered on 18 May 2014 and received positive feedback. The rifle was reported to be extremely accurate, reliable, and outmatched the G3 in all categories. The Turkish Army plans to gradually phase out its G3 and to make the MPT-76 its main service rifle. Azerbaijan plans to produce parts of the rifle in cooperation with Turkey. Serial production began in 2015. The initial phase of the project will see a total of 35,014 MPT-76s being produced in two tranches. The first tranche of the initial phase, consisting of 20,000 rifles was contracted to the state-owned company Machines and Chemical Industries Board (

) in June 2015. The second tranche, consisting of 15,014 rifles, was contracted with local company Kalekalip in December 2015. The first batch of rifles was ready for delivery to the Turkish military in January 2017. Approximately 25,000 MPT-76s have been built by December 2018 and there is 350,000+ firm order for the rifle in 2019.

Design

The design was based on the

AR-15 An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation d ...

, but the gas piston system was influenced by the

HK417 The Heckler & Koch HK417 is a battle rifle designed and manufactured by Heckler & Koch. Being the larger caliber version of the Heckler & Koch HK416, and chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO rifle cartridge, it is intended for use where the penetra ...

. It has a

Picatinny rail The Picatinny rail ( or ), or Pic rail for short, also known as a MIL-STD-1913 rail, 1913 rail or STANAG 2324 rail (cancelled), is a military standard rail interface system that provides a mounting platform for firearm accessories. It was o ...

system and mounting options for an under-barrel shotgun and grenade launcher.

Variants

The following variants are in production: * Battle Rifle with 16-inch barrel using

. * Carbine with 12-inch barrel using

. * Designated Marksman's Rifle with 20-inch barrel using

MPT-55

In May 2017, MKEK introduced the MPT-55 of the MPT, which is chambered in 5.56×45mm. The standard version is with a barrel, and the shorter MPT-55K is with an barrel. Turkey plans to obtain 20,000 of the smaller-caliber rifles to replace license-produced

HK416 The Heckler & Koch HK416 is a gas-operated assault rifle chambered for the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge. It is designed and manufactured by the German company Heckler & Koch. Although the design is based on the AR-15 class of firearm (specifical ...

s within special forces.

KNT-76

The KNT (Keskin Nişancı Tüfeği, English: Sniper Rifle, lit. "Sharp Shooter Rifle") is the DMR version of the MPT series. KNT-76 is produced in Kırıkkale Arms Factory like the MPT-76. The rifle with the same "Gas Operated Rotary Bolt Action" mechanism can fire semi-automatically. The MPT-76 can fire fully automatic and semi-automatic. Trigger sensitivity in the KNT is reduced by five Newtons which allows the trigger to move with less pressure. This drop prevents the involuntary movement of the barrel due to trigger movement. The KNT-76 weighs 500 grams heavier while the magazine capacity remains the same. The effective range increased from 600 meters to 800 meters thanks to the barrel extending from 406 mm to 508 mm. MOA is reduced to 1.5 MOA in KNT-76 as it was 4 MOA with the MPT-76.

KAAN-717

KAAN-717 is the carbine version of the MPT series, chambered in 7.62x51 NATO. Designed for the Special Forces, it uses a short-stroke action. KAAN-717 also comes with a different stock with cheek rest.

Users

*: 30 MPT-76s and 30 MPT-55s * : Around 2,500 MPT-76s delivered. * * : A total of 450 rifles were delivered to Somalia, which is dealing with an

insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregu ...

. Used by Gorgor (Eagle)

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s * : 66,000 MPT-76 and MPT-55s as of 2019

Potential users

* *: Expressed interest in fully adopting the rifle for military service. *

References

{{Turkish Army infantry weapons 5.56 mm assault rifles 7.62×51mm NATO battle rifles Rifles of Turkey Turkish inventions Modular firearms ArmaLite AR-10 derivatives Weapons and ammunition introduced in 2014