G11 assault rifle - Definition

The Heckler und Koch G11 is an assault rifle that was developed by the German firearm company Heckler und Koch for the Bundeswehr (German Army). The weapon uses a 4.7 mm caseless ammunition that is much lighter than that of a standard assault rifle. The design principle was to fire multi-round bursts with a higher degree of accuracy than possible with conventional assault rifles. The weapon itself has three firing modes: full auto (600 rounds per minute), semi-auto, and a three round burst (an impressive 2100 rounds per minute, which is roughly 35 rounds per second). Due to the ammunition being caseless, the firing cycle is very short in the three round burst mode, partly due to time being saved by not having to expel the case from the breech. The recoil from the first round in the three round burst is not felt by the weapon user until after the third round has left the chamber. It is unclear, based on the extant documentation, if the weapon could sustain this rate of fire. Ammunition cook-off (ignition of the ammunition by heat in the weapon) was a problem with early prototypes; the brass ammunition case plays a major role in transferring heat out of the weapon in conventional weapons. According to various web sites, there were a squad-level automatic weapon and a personal defense weapon planned on the same ammunition family as that used by the G11. Some hints of the former caseless PDW design can be seen in the current Heckler and Koch MP7 personal defense weapon. One of the most important reasons as for the creation of the new weapon and the new munition was the issue of weight: the M16A2 with a total of 270 cartridges would weigh about 16 lb., while a shooter with the G11K2 rifle would be able to carry 600 rounds of ammunition. Another design feature of the rifle was the ability to mount three 45-round magazines on rails on the front of the rifle, making reloading many times faster. Additionally, a factory-zeroed scope would give the shooter an advantage over an adversary using a rifle with iron sights.

The gun itself never made it into full production, even though it clearly outperformed several other prototype guns. Reportedly some 1000 or so rifles were delivered to units of the army of West Germany shortly before German reunification occurred in 1990. The reunification imposed new strains on the German army and forced a reassessment of defense needs. It is unclear if this weapon or similar weapons will reappear or become widespread in the near future.