Heckler & Koch G11
| |
|---|---|
| G11 specifications | |
| Country of origin: | Germany |
| Action: | Gas operated, rotating breech |
| In production: | prototype |
| Cartridge: | 4.73×33 mm |
| Length: | 750 mm |
| Weight: | 3.6 kg empty, 4.3 kg loaded |
| Barrel: | 540 mm |
| Rifling: | 155 mm per twist |
| Magazine capacity: | 50 or 45 rds |
| Magazine type: | Single-stack horizontal box, holds 2 spares |
| Rate of fire: | 3rd bursts at 2000 rpm, ~470 rpm cyclic
(varied between prototypes) |
| Muzzle velocity: | ~930 m/s |
| Bullet mass: | 3.25 g |
| Kinetic energy: | ~1410 J |
| Effective range: | 400 m |
| Sights: | Integrated optical sight |
The Heckler & Koch G11 is a developmental assault rifle developed primarily during the 1970s and 1980s by the firearm company Heckler & Koch. The rifle itself is noted for its blocky shape and green color and use of caseless ammunition. It was primarily a project of West Germany, though it was also of significance to the other NATO countries as well. In particular, versions of it participated in the U.S. Advanced Combat Rifle program.
Design
The weapon uses a 4.73 mm caseless ammunition. The ammunition is also designated as 4.92 mm because in Germany the calibre of a bullet is measured by the size of the base of a bullet. The barrel chamber, though, is 4.73 mm, and the bullet is compressed to that size when fired. The 4.73 mm round is half the weight and 40% the size by volume of the standard NATO 5.56 mm round used in assault rifles. The 4.73 mm round also has similar ballistics to a 5.56 mm round, but the 4.73 mm is much less likely to tumble when hitting or penetrating a target, and thus not as lethal. It is not clear to what extent the round would fragment, which could also make it more lethal. (See Terminal Ballistics)
The design principle was to fire multi-round bursts with a higher degree of hit probability than is possible with earlier rifles. The weapon itself has three firing modes: semi-auto, full-auto at 400-600 rounds per minute, and three-round burst at 2100 rounds per minute, which is 35 rounds per second. The loading and feed mechanism is physically very complicated but exceptionally fast and reliable. Rounds are held vertically from above the barrel. The firing cycle process is roughly:
- As the cocking handle on the side is rotated clockwise by the weapon operator:
- A round is dropped into the revolving chamber vertically (a loading piston assists this process).
- The chamber rotates 90° until it is lined up with the barrel. This completes the chambering of the round and cocking of the firing pin.
- When the trigger is pulled, a firing pin ignites the primer, which then ignites a powder booster charge that pushes the bullet into the barrel. Then the solid lump of propellant ignites, accelerating the bullet out of the barrel.
- The chamber then rotates back to its original position until it is lined up with the feed mechanism and the process repeats.
A conventional assault rifle has about 7 steps in its cycle, but because the G11 uses caseless ammunition there are no extraction and ejection steps. Also, due to the G11 having no loading bolt, there are no locking and unlocking steps either. If a round fails to fire, the rifle can be manually chambered by twisting the cocking handle counterclockwise. This loads the next round and pushes the dud out an emergency ejection port on the bottom of the rifle.
The recoil in the three-round burst is not felt by the weapon's user until after the third round has left the chamber. This is accomplished by having the barrel and feeding mechanism "float" within the rifle casing. When the bullets are fired, the barrel and mechanism recoils back freely several inches and only when it hits the plate at the back of the rifle does the user feel the recoil. During this transit time the rifle loads and fires 3 rounds. When the barrel and mechanism reaches the back, springs push it forward into its normal position. When firing in semi-auto and full auto modes, the rifle only loads and fires one round per transit of the barrel, cutting the rate of fire to a controllable 1/3 of its max rate.
The internal workings of the rifle were rather complex compared to those of some earlier designs, with the guts being compared to the inside of a compact clock. The number of hours of maintenance required for the G11 as compared to other designs is not clear, especially since the impact of the powder used in the caseless ammo remains unknown. Designers claimed that because there was no ejection cycle the internal mechanisms would have little chance to get exposed to external dust, dirt and sand and this would supposedly reduce the need for cleaning.
Ammunition cook-off and shape
Ammunition cook-off (ignition of the ammunition by heat in the firing chamber) was a major problem with early prototypes; the brass (or steel) case of conventional ammunition plays a major role in absorbing heat and preventing the propellant from igniting prematurely. This huge defect showed up in the 1979 NATO trials with disastrous results, and the G11 subsequently had to be withdrawn from the trial for safety reasons.
Heckler & Koch joined forces with Dynamit Nobel to redesign the cartridge. The cook-off problem was supposedly solved, or at least reduced, by using a denatured hexogen propellant with a special binder and coating for the ammunition that increased the spontaneous ignition temperature to 100 °C above that of standard, nitro-cellulose propellant.
An interesting feature of the new round was its unconventional shape. Most round casings are cylindrical (circular) to allow for easy ejection. However, the redesigned cartridge was molded into a squared, box-like shape. This allowed the 50-round magazine to carry the maximum amount of propellant in the minumum space, since the spaces between rounds left by conventional cartridges were filled with propellant.
The issue of heat removal from caseless firing weapons as well as methods of igniting them continues to be researched by other companies. An alternative route was taken by the Austrian company Voere, which developed a caseless round that was electrically fired.
Variants
According to various web sites, there was a squad-level automatic weapon and a personal defence 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 defence 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 weighs about 16 lb (7 kg), while a shooter with the G11K2 rifle would be able to carry 600 rounds of ammunition at the same weight. 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 much faster. Additionally, a factory-zeroed scope would give the shooter an advantage over an adversary using a rifle with iron sights, though the modern trend is towards integrated scope rails for greater versatility.
HK ACR
HK particpated in the U.S. Advanced Combat Rifle Program during the 1980s and 1990s. None of the final four test entrants scored high enough to replace the M16. Some sources report that the low scores resulted from the Army's requirement that the new rifles improve on the M16's score by 100%, and question whether that was a realistic goal.
Future
Reportedly some 1000 or so rifles were delivered to units of the army of West Germany shortly before German reunification in 1990, but the weapon never entered into full production. Reunification imposed new strains on the German army and forced a reassessment of defense needs. It is unclear if this or similar weapons will reappear or become widespread in the near future. The caseless round is cheaper to make and uses fewer raw materials, but retooling factories to manufacture it and phasing out standard ammunition production is costly and controversial, and the viability of any given caseless round is controversial. Possibly the G11 will remain a cul-de-sac of sorts, and future military weapons will be developed along a different route. However, future weapons may be able to incorporate better implementations of some of the ideas attempted in the G11, especially caseless ammunition. The primary obstacle with the G11 may be, however, that it is too advanced. NATO countries are not usually willing to use weapons which use a non-standard round due to the fact that it makes it more difficult for the allies to share supplies. No nation was willing to utilize so radical a development at that time.
In Fiction
- The G11 is the last and most expensive assault rifle in the PC game Global Operations[1]. It has no upgrades.
- Fallout II includes two variants of this weapon.
- It also appears in Jagged Alliance 2.
- It also appears in Project IGI 2: Covert Strike.
- Delta Force: Land Warrior has the G11 as one of the primary weapon options.
- The G11 and its LMG variant, the LMG11, are featured in the Heckler & Koch mod for the flash game Madness Interactive.
- The G11 is also used by a Neo-Nazi cult in Matthew Reilly's novel, 'Temple'.
- The G11 is a custom gun in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. The gun has a grayish-beige color.