Most surviving examples in German service were rebarreled after the war as the 7.5 cm FK 16 nA (neuer Art, meaning "new model").

field gun was very mobile, but, once the war settled into trench warfare, its lack of range became a serious disadvantage.

The barrel was lengthened and it was given a box carriage to allow for greater elevation, which increased the range.

It was prematurely rushed into production in 1916 and early guns suffered from a number of defects, mainly stemming from the German use of substitute materials to reduce consumption of strategic metals.

These were traced to poor quality control of its shells, which were sometimes too large in diameter, and problems with the picric acid used as high explosive filler in lieu of TNT.