Q: Early history of the BK-27 cannon

Hello chaps,

In early 1972, NATO MRCA Management Agency let a contract to Mauser for development of what became the BK-27 cannon.

This appears to have been issued after the DEFA 552 and Aden Mk 4 were rejected for MRCA. Any more info on the contract, performance requirements?

Was it placed nationally per workshare or were there other contenders for the development?

The ammunition is fairly hard-hitting and the cannon has two handy RoF, but seems to have been a lot of additional dev risk to have loaded onto the project when the three partner nations already used NATO-standardised 30×113.

Thank you!