By: Friedrich Seiltgen
Copyright © 2023
In 1968 Heckler & Koch embarked on a revolutionary weapon design, the G11 caseless rifle. With tensions high in Europe during the Cold War, weapons designers worked overtime to create weapons of all types.
With its integral optical sight and box-like design, the space-age rifle looks like something from a “Starship Troopers” film.
The G11 abandoned the traditional bullet/casing system and fired a 4.73 x 33 mm caseless round developed by Dynamit Nobel.
This new kind of ammo used a propellant that surrounded the bullet, which reduced the overall weight as there was no casing in the magazine. It also increased the rate of fire since casings didn’t need to be ejected.
The G11’s breech rotates 90 degrees, and the caseless round loads from above. When fired, the gas from the previous shot pushes a piston, which rotates the breech upward and allows a round to drop into the chamber. It then rotates back into alignment with the barrel and is ready to be fired.
The G11’s action was complex, to say the least, and soldiers equipped with the G11 would not be allowed to disassemble the rifle for cleaning or repairs. That required a trained armorer.
The AK-47 comprises around 90 individual parts depending on the variant and is one of the simplest rifle designs.
The M-16, with its gas impingement system, is more complex and comprises around 100 parts, depending on the variant.
The G11 is made up of a total of almost 450 parts; 144 of those make up the G11’s breech assembly alone.
This revolutionary combination of caseless ammunition and a gas-operated rotating breech action gave the G11 the capability to fire in what it called “hyperburst mode.”
Hyperburst mode put the rifle in the Gatling gun territory and allowed the G11 to fire 3-round bursts at a cyclic rate of 2,000 rounds per minute, or around 33 rounds per second.
SPECIFICATIONS
Type: Gas-operated, select fire rifle (prototype)
Caliber: The 4.73×33 mm
Magazine Capacity: 50 rounds
Rate of Fire: 460 rounds per minute (full auto); 2100 rounds per minute (3-round bursts)
Effective Range: 400 meters
Sights: Integral optical sight
Barrel Length: 21.25 inches
Overall Length: 30 inches
Weight: 8 pounds
Although the G11 was quite complex, it was the fall of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany, along with the so-called peace dividend, that sealed its fate.
As West Germany began reunifying with East Germany, West Germany could no longer afford to put money into further G11 engineering as the cost of reunification was in the billions. With the fall of the Soviet Union, there was no longer an urgent need for new weapons as NATO no longer had to defend itself from the “Bear.”
That’s all for now, folks! Please keep sending in your questions, tips, and article ideas. And as always – “Let’s Be Careful Out There.”
Friedrich Seiltgen is a retired Master Police Officer with 20 years of service with the Orlando Police Department. He conducts training in Lone Wolf Terrorism Counter Strategies, Firearms, and Active Shooter Response. His writing has appeared in Off Grid, RECOIL, Floridajolt.com, Soldier of Fortune, The Counter Terrorist Magazine, American Thinker, Homeland Security Today, and The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International.
Contact him at [email protected].