During the 1980s, German weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch developed the G11, a weapon which fired a 4.7mm caseless cartridge. It was big, black, and bulky. But even then, those crafty Germans developed a means to carry it. In fact, they came up with several ways to carry it.
The G11 was evaluated by the US Army during the Advanced Combat Rifle Program, but was not adopted. The ammunition proved to be too much of a challenge.
For more information on the HK G11 ceaseless gun, visit armourersbench.com/2017/11/19/an-introduction-to-the-heckler-koch-g11.
Tags: H&K
I vote LUNCHBOX!
First operational use of the word “operator”? 😉
With pride. Maybe in space.
Seems the Army’s tradition of not adopting stuff goes back awhile.
Funny laws. This thing is specifically prohibited in Canada. Even though it only existed as a prototype, so you can’t get one. It is fully automatic(and then some), so you can’t get one. Was never exported, so you can’t get one. Did they prohibit case-less ammo? NO. They prohibited a weapon you can’t get any way. Dumb ass gun laws.
They said they made over a 1000 of them so I would say it made it past the prototype stage…
nope, and I be surprised if the 1000 were complete and functional. They could not get he ammo to cooperate. It was interesting in that one trigger pull let three rounds loose, which only one recoil impulse.
There were a few sales type videos made showing it off, but ultimately the fall of “The Wall” economics and the unreliable ammo issue shut the program down.
What I’d like to see addressed was how they would carry spare mags for the G11. Based on the pictures, they look to be nearly as long as the barrel – so they must be 15″ or longer.
I guess some sort of Quiver?
I thought HK got this system working well enough that the West Germans felt comfortable adopting it for limited operational use for one of their SF units, but the economic realities of unification with East Germany caused it to be cut.
@ Mark:
Most of the Ammo was supposed du be stored in the weapons Stock.
3x 45rd Mag’s in the weapon itself.
Not the stock; above the fore-end/barrel running parallel to, and on top of, the barrel on either side of the feed magazine.