Steyr Mannlicher

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Steyr Mannlicher GmbH & Co KG

Type	Public
Founded	1963
Headquarters	Steyr, Austria
Key people	Josef Werndl, founder
Industry	Defense
Products	Firearms, weapons
Revenue
Employees	~ (2004)
Website	www.steyr-mannlicher.com

The Austrian firm Steyr-Mannlicher is a firearms manufacturer based in the city of Steyr. Originally a part of the Steyr-Daimler-Puch manufacturing conglomerate, it became independent when the conglomerate was broken in 1990.

1 Controversy
2 Well known products
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Controversy

Steyr made international headlines when it sold 800 HS .50 long range sniper rifles to Iran in 2005, for the National Iranian Police Organisation to use against drug smugglers.

There was a large amount of concern in the United States, UK, and to a lesser extent, countries like Denmark, that the rifles would find their way into Iraq and be used against the New Iraqi Army or Coalition forces. Nevertheless, the sale was approved by the Austrian government. Forty-five days later, the first of several American soldiers was killed by, ostensibly, one of the exported weapons, and a number of the rifles were recovered in raids on Iraqi insurgents.^[1]

On their website, Steyr Mannlicher offered a corporate response to these allegations, claiming that no hard proof, in the form of serial numbers, has yet been offered to confirm that the weapons that killed American soldiers were indeed from the eight hundred exported to Iran.

The statement also pointed out that since the international license for the HS .50 is expired, the weapons in Iraq could be knockoffs from other manufacturers.