Hello everyone. Welcome back to a very special What is this weapon? I'm Jonathan and I have ordered one of the rarest firearms in the world for today's episode and I believe it's arriving right about now. [Music] Yes, that's right. We have for you a genuine G11 rifle today. Uh, legendary thing. Um, there is stuff out there already on the G11, of course. In fact, there's an excellent video over at the Armor's Bench on this very example. Um, but I think I've got something I can contribute. Having spent longer than is healthy puzzling out the Eldrich mystery that is the G11. Um, you might remember we have an existing video on the G11, but it was with a wooden mockup from earlier on. I think it was prototype five or six era uh of the 1970s G11. uh the stamp sheet metal or substantially uh still stamp sheet metal design. This is um nearly the final iteration. This is um well G11 ACR and we may as well go straight in and show you the markings. ACR meaning advanced combat rifle. That's the American program to potentially replace the M16 A2 late 80s 1990 time frame. Um, it is the G11 K1 bill standard as it were. Um, more on that later on. That's just what this one is. It is serial number 245, although it's um barrel and brereech assembly, which is what the metal bits of this are called, has a different serial number, interestingly. So, this has been assembled from two different ACR program rifles. Now before we get too far into this and we are going to get too far into this, I firstly want to thank the other collection in the UK which has um provided this for this episode. This is not something we're keeping unfortunately. I will have to reluctantly give it back. Um but I've had a good long time to get familiar with it. So you know who you are. Thank you very much. I also want to thank World of Guns because they are going to make me look good in this episode. Um, I'm going to do my best to explain the bits of this that other people haven't yet, but it's footage from that game slash piece of software. I think it's I think it's more than a game to be quite honest. Um, that will hopefully really nail how this thing works. And between this video, um, the one from the armor's bench, which is actually on the same weapon as this, same example, and the forgotten weapons video, which is on a slightly different variant, and a a dummy action that um Ian had access to at the HK Grey Room in the USA. Hopefully, between those those three videos, you'll get a load of detail on this thing. Now, there are a couple of very good books that cover this. Both of them in German. Um, both of them probably quite hard to get hold of. They're in our library if you're able to visit here at the armories. We have an excellent library as you might imagine and it is accessible to the public. Um, in case you can get hold of them, we'll put all the references as usual in the description. So, I think people who have taken an active interest in this will have understood the basics of how this works. And we'll strip this down in a moment and you'll see it. But you have a um a recoiling barreled action inside this this casing and it reciprocates within the housing. I think that's understood. You've got the magazine here. Um fact just show you that now. Press the button on the top out. It pops. Get another one. Slot it in. Clicks into place. And the magazine moves with the barreled action because it's locked in at the back here and the whole thing moves. That bit is easy enough to understand. In the back here, we've got the the rotary drum. Again, people are often familiar with that. It's it's taking a round from the top, rotating it to fire, and then rotating vertically to accept the next round. Um Ian covers that in his video. That's relatively straightforward as well. We got the controls here. Very HK. Um, now this one is well safe. One, three for the infamous 2,100 rounds per minute three round burst and then 50 on this one, which is curious because by this time in the ACR program, the magazines are now 45 rounds. So, they haven't bothered to update the label on the receiver. Um, good reason to use that infinity symbol or the later HK all the bullets symbol. But anyway, we know it would be 45 with this, but it was originally conceptualized as a 50 round magazine. Um, even the optical site is not particularly groundbreaking. You know, we had um, uh, the STEA AUG with its one power optic built in, much like this. This is a one power optic built in. There was an ACR program variant with a Swarovski optic that was variable from one power to 3 and 1 half power. This isn't it. This is the fixed standard optic uh on the earlier ACR rifles. And we have an elevation control here set to hundreds of meters. And we just turn that to however many hundreds of meters that we want to shoot out to. Uh, I don't know if I'll be able to show you the reticle on that, but that's that's the adjustment. Uh, and there's a battle sight zero at 350 m for that. That's all fairly conventional. I mean, it adds to the the weird profile of the thing being on this on this carrying handle like this, but it's not a kind of earthshattering attempt to revolutionize technology. Surely for, you know, for the 1980s, anything with an optic integrated into it was advanced, but it's not confusing. It's not hard to understand so far, I would say. Of course, once we pop open the hood, we start potentially getting a bit confused, but I think even there the basic principles um can be understood and have been explained very well in other videos. Even the um amusing locomotive connecting rod piston uh setup that that clatters away like a steam [Music] engine. We can kind of grasp how that works. Yes, it's complex to look at, but we can intuitively understand roughly what's going on there. I think especially with some world of guns uh tinkering, but let's get into it and I'll show you the bits that get really complicated and see if we can nail those as well. So, let's get into it. Press the magazine catch. Remove the magazine. We do have a muzzle protector there. Little bit unconventional. They normally go over the muzzle, but because this thing is recessed into the handguard, it's more of a plug. And that's actually closing up really the only ingress point that's left for dirt because the magazine has its own shutter. Stop stuff getting in when there's no magazine fitted. The ejection port is normally sealed. If the cocking handle is left in the correct position, that's sealed up. Um, this thing is clearly sealed up as well. Um, perhaps my favorite feature of the design. It's in the patent. It kind of a fart valve. So, jumping ahead a little bit in terms of how we're going to explain the function, but because this is also sealed up, in fact, there's there's a in theory, there's an airtight seal here, there's a buildup of firing gases in the action that would normally come out of the ejection port and elsewhere usually on a normal firearm. They have to go somewhere. So once the pressure is built up to a certain level, there's a diaphragm in here and it pushes this down and forces the the gases under pressure out of the bottom of the gun. Hence why I think of it in that way, which is extremely childish of me. But um when there is no pressure buildup, that is shut as well cuz there's a again a rubber seal inside there. That's a patented feature of this design. So, there's really no other way for dirt to get in. It's one of the advantages of the system. Uh, so to get at the good stuff, we've got tabs top and bottom. I find it's easier to press one then the other and sort of wangle this off. There we go. And in the manual is the amusing instruction to use this as a parts bin. So when you take bits off, you shove them in this bucket that comes with the gun. Um the magazine catch is integral to this. What it's actually acting upon is this catch here. And while we're at it, let's just show you how that works. You got to get this the right way up, of course. There's a notch on top and we see that that locks in there. So that's locked in. And at that point, we start to see basics of how that works. With the trigger pulled, there's an interlock there. So the trigger does need to be pulled. And as the when the weapon fires, the whole thing comes to the rear. Very strong spring. So, I can't simulate that from this position, but we'll show you uh with some footage exactly what's happening with this thing. So, magazine back off out of the way. Handguard comes off in the same way. Pinch. Might have to do one after the other. There we go. And that comes off as well. There's a steel tube in there, the heat shield, but otherwise that's another piece of plastic. Put that out the way. Oh, sling sling loops molded in with metal reinforce on both sides on both components, the buttstock and the handguard. That leaves us with the the center part as it's called in English and the barrel and breach assembly. B and BA is the uh official English language abbreviation for this bit. To get that bit out and really tried to get to how this thing works, there's a catch up in the front here that you won't be able to see, but I press that to one side and I pull the trigger and the whole center part comes off. We'll set this aside for the moment. So, what's left in here? I mean, there's some aluminium reinforcement in here. Um, but the only thing that's really left in here is the trigger mechanism, apart from the optic, of course. So, we have to push on this guide section here. Pull that out. That's got our magazine door on it. Um, a rubber seal. Um, and it's essentially it's how you it's what you suspend this thing from inside this part so that it can reciprocate. That then frees up space for us to pull this tab across, lift up, and remove the trigger mechanism. So I mean not like for a a full field strip if you like if you needed to access the trigger mechanism which is a user you probably shouldn't need to. It's still not that complicated to field strip. It's going beyond that that becomes the true nightmare. So let's set that aside as well. Um just briefly with the help from World of Guns. Um this is actually not as complicated as it looks either. So the selector axle in here is much same as the one on an AR-15 or something depending where it's positioned allows these parts to interface in a different way and allows you your semi-automatic, automatic and burst functions. The way in which that's done or the bit that really matters is on auto we basically what happens is we have a support for this release lever here. That's what triggers the the sear mechanism. So with that supported by a piece underneath, every time this comes back forward again, it gets tripped as long as the trigger is held cuz that's not going anywhere. On semi and on three round burst, that support component underneath is not in the way. I can simulate that by moving this bit across. And you can play with this in in the in the game to really get to grips with this if you want to, but I can show you it uh manually as it were by sliding that across so that there is no support under the release lever and when I pull the trigger and the release lever slides up. What we would find is as that mechanism comes forward again, it overrides it but there's no support. So it disconnects the trigger. So on semi and burst, there's no support for this thing and it can't fire another shot. On auto, there is support underneath it and I can't push it down. So that triggers it every time. So although this is quite complicated with lots of flat bits of steel and springs and goubbins, in principle, how this creates those three firing modes isn't that hard to understand. Certainly not if you play with it in World of Guns. So, if you thought that was complicated, you ain't seen nothing yet. The B andBA, the barrel and breach assembly. Um, there's a reason why HKUSA fabricated a um non-firing short of blocked barrel version of this so that they could travel around and answer awkward questions with a real object because this thing is so complicated. Um, so the bit that Ian explained very well, um, we can briefly cover and we will I'm going to keep referencing World of Guns because it's just that helpful. How do you clear this thing in part? Well, A, how does it feed? B, how would you clear it if a round doesn't fire or you just need to unload the weapon at the end of the day? Of course, you need to do that or after you've been firing or after you've just been carrying the thing around. You've got to have a way of ejecting a live round. Maybe it's misfired, maybe you just want to clear it. Uh, normally you don't need to eject a case. The whole point of this thing is caseless technology, which gives you a number of advantages. Primarily low weight of ammunition. Half the weight of I believe half the weight of 5.56. Um, and smaller volume as well because they're little dinky squarish blocks that will stack together. So th those are huge advantages. It allows for a very high rate of fire. So, this thing, the three round burst mechanism, runs this thing at 2,100 rounds per minute. The A94, we also have videos on that, does that using um a very clever intermediate feed system with conventional ammunition. This thing does it with the caseless. So, the secret source, as it were, to this thing is that drum chamber. So, you've got rounds coming in this way, pointing down. You've then got this lever mechanism here, which I'll operate on this as best I can, but it's very tricky. Better off watching the animations, that pushes the round into the chamber. Um, there's a lever off to the side in here, which on this one has a fractured tip, uh, unfortunately. And then this lever in here that I'm pressing with my finger and is sprung, that is actually the ejection lever or the ejector lever. All that does is eject a non-fired round. It's the lever off to the side that feeds the live round in for actual firing. So there two different mechanisms going on in here to get around. Well, one to get it into the chamber, one to get it out of the chamber. It's It's like a clearing rod or like a ram rod, but it's mounted to this uh system on the side. And it it's like a finger. It pokes in, pushes the round out the bottom. You can see that on Ian's video. On the bottom, we have the slide. And you can see this slides. That is to stop the round from simply falling out the bottom of the drum when the thing when the um feed arm pushes it in. If there wasn't a little trap door on the bottom, the round would just drop out the bottom of the gun. So, there has to be a slide that's actuated as the weapon cycles to stop it from falling out so it can then rotate into alignment and be fired by the firing pin. Speaking of the firing pin, that is on a sort of a ramp at the back here and it kind of rotates. It kind of cork screws into the primer on the back of the round, which is unusual in itself. Again, much easier to show you in animated footage. And back here, we have the disconnector, which is critical to the three round burst mechanism, which was the real holy grail of understanding for me with this thing. The gas piston is on this side. So, normally it'd be up front on the top of the bottom of the barrel. Here, it's on the side at the back. And there's that locomotive connecting rod attached to the gas piston which drives this system of gears here to both operate the feed and eject levers and to rotate the drum itself to receive it around and rotate forwards ready for firing. So getting getting complicated but all of this I think is fairly easy to grasp once you see it in a diagram form or uh being operated to some extent and even better animated. We then have a um well the buffer system. So this latches into the front of that center part. This stays put on a spring and the whole thing extends out the back of the gun to fire. You saw me do that earlier on pulling it out partway at the back. We'll show you that in full operation. So, this clips in the whole thing, comes out the back, extends a spring or compresses a spring, and that drives it forward again into the firing position. Now, we don't have the armor's tool for operating the brereech drum and the mechanism, but there is one, an emergency clearing tool essentially in the pistol grip of the weapon. So, cleaning brush. This is also how you check it clear. By the way, when this is in the gun, you simply shove this in to show that there's not a round in the chamber. I'd personally like to be able to see into the chamber, but um pretty hard to do with this thing. So, that's your that's how you show clear. It also has a fold out pair of prongs which fit into the control disc here. So, normally your cocking handle, which by the way is broken off on this one, so we can't show you in the gun how it works. By the way, to [ __ ] this thing, it's a full 360° turn to [ __ ] it. that then locks in place and you have to do a half inch turn to the rear to unlock the char the cocking handle to then be able to rotate it again. That's so like a like a revolver cylinder indexing into place basically. Otherwise, it would it might move past the index point and that would be a bad day because if you if the firing pin was able to initiate the round, your gun would blow up. So, to manually operate the thing, we need to use a tool like this. We slot that into the control disc and we can then rotate it forwards. And I can give you a hint at least before we revert to World of Guns of how this thing is working. So turn it forward and we start to see the mechanism operate. Now obviously under firing this gas piston is being pushed back by high pressure gas bled through the port in the barrel just like a normal gas operated rifle but this isn't a normal gas operated rifle. Uh and you can see and get a sense of some of the things that are going on as this thing comes around. So that is now full 360 turn. The system is locked. The arm up here is shoved around down into the drum and the drum has then been rotated into firing position. The firing pin is cocked on the sear. This is the sear. This is the sear. This is the catch bar. And these two bars are critical to this three round burst mechanism. So you would normally well with the trigger mechanism positioned to operate the sear, you fire the thing. That click is it going bang in theory. On semi-automatic, it simply returns to the rear. The gas system drives this around again, as I just did, [ __ ] it a second time, and the sear slides into position under the release lever, ready for you to manually pull the trigger. So far, so simple. Automatic, as I mentioned, the release lever is pushed up as long as you're holding the trigger. So that sear gets popped up every time it comes forward. That's quite simple to understand as well. We'll show you these um one after the other anyway, but though for me those were fairly easy to grasp. It was the function of this second lever here, the catch bar and also a critical assembly that's hidden at the moment, but I can show you in a bit more detail and we can definitely show you the animated version. There's a counting wheel in here under the connecting rod. A tooththed counting wheel. And this gear has tooths on the on its axle that interface with that counting wheel. This is how it counts off the three shots before it resets the burst. But how does it do that? and how does this get reset? That was the thing that was driving me completely batty. Um, and I did eventually figure it out. Part of the problem is that we did not have the disconnector spring or the catch bar spring fitted at first. So, this thing was flapping in the breeze and you'd have needed four hands to try to set everything and and to simulate how this is working. I'm doing all of this, by the way, in parallel with World of Guns. Um, they did an astonishing job figuring this out from just the Armor's Manual, um, which is not that helpful and from photo reference from from other examples, and they had they had nearly nailed it. Um, but because I had been obsessing about the three round burst mechanism in the meantime, I was able to feed in that that critical bit of information and explain to them and get them some angle photography and footage and simulate it working so that they could make that make sense once I'd finally made it make sense in my head. And now I'm hopefully going to do that for you as well. So the critical thing that happens and let me just reccock this because it'll help me to explain it even if you end up watching something else while I'm doing this. There's that click of the firing pin being cocked the disconnector uh locking or the sear effectively via the disconnector holding back the firing pin and putting everything where it needs to be. What happens when the trigger mechanism is in the right position to push up not on the not directly on the sear but on the catch bar is and I'll try to do that. It might not be visible to you but rest assured I am pressing the other bar that still operates the sear cuz there's a peg connecting the two. So the sear still trips the firing pin. So by operating that catch bar, this lever moves and it traps the end of that catch bar. Now that takes the play out of the system as it were. So catch bar connected to sear bar connected to disconnector by trapping the end of this bar. It prevents the disconnector from catching the firing pin. So it's not cocking. It's firing off every time it cycles. I hope that makes sense, but if it doesn't, you're about to see it visually visualized. So, with the bar trapped under this rocking lever here, there's not enough room in the system for the firing pin to get held back. That's the simplest way I can put that. So, how does that work with the three round bursts? Well, the cogs on this gear move the counting wheel around, and you'll see it move into the different positions as the system cycles. And then when it reaches a certain point, it moves the counting wheel return lever back again, freeing the catch bar from under it. It then pops back up because of this little spring under it and the disconnector and sear can hold the firing pin back. That's what it's doing on those three shots as it comes to the rear. Right. So, let's try to do this with the hardware. And when inevitably you can't see what the heck's going on, we will cut to some animation for you. So, I've put this back together part way because the only way to get the three round burst system to kick in is to have the gas system simulated as it were to have it have this pulled out the back of the gun. So, what we need to do to achieve this is set the gun muzzle down on the desk like this. And an extra pair of hands comes in handy for this kind of work. Thank you. Extra pair of hands. So, we have pre I've pre-cocked this. So, what we'll do is fire the first shot. Keep the trigger held. Push down on the center part. So, we're now we fired our first shot. The system is in recoil. We're not going to simulate the exact position of where the the breach would be, of course, but it's in recoil. That's all you need to know. And to pro prove the point of what's happening, I will manually cycle it for the remaining two shots. And what should happen is it it will simulate cycling and firing on its own. And then on the last shot, it will clip into place and stop firing and the whole thing would then return forward. So, we'll just make sure that that works. And what's happening here is the counting wheel return lever in here has an curved arm at the top of it, which we'll show you. And when the catch bar is depressed, and only when the catch bar is depressed, that arm slips in between the end of the catch bar and the brereech housing. And that means there's not enough travel in the system for the sear or the disconnector, I should say, to catch the firing pin. meaning it's not held back, which means it fires itself off. Really hope that makes sense. Might help when I operate this for you. If that fails, you can see the animation footage. So, let's try it. So, first shot has been fired and then on its own with the counting wheel revolving, we should get a second click at the end of travel. So, the axle on the on the gear is turning the counting wheel to the next position. It's counting off the second shot. That's the second shot. And you see the firing pin release. But this is not locked. So there that's the second shot fired. We're still ready for the third shot. Gas system would then cycle the whole thing again. Round it goes for the third shot. Fired off our third shot, but the gas system has to cycle again. The counting wheel reset the counting wheel return lever. Now it's locked. So, three shots and a final cycle of the gas system. We can now return. Let the recoil uh the return spring return the breach and barrel assembly forward till it's locked in place. And if we pull the trigger just to test it, the whole system has been reset. And you can see just what a faf this thing is. A to understand and b to even even to explain to you with the thing right in front of me with an extra pair of hands, but hopefully with a bit of animation playing over the top that has made sense. It's an astonishingly complicated system or to achieve that 2,100 rounds per minute three round burst. Now, we really don't have time for a full history of the G11 um or of caseless ammunition for that matter, but um very briefly, the earliest modern foray into caseless ammunition where essentially you're turning the propellant into a a substitute case for the projectile and the primer and its own propellant, I guess, is um Nazi Germany. So, in in the 1930s, there is work on an 8 mm Um, well, I guess it's a 792 rifle round redesigned with a consumable cartridge case. We actually have a drawing of that in our archive which I came across a while ago. Not quite clear what the purpose was there. Um, but the obvious benefits of weight saving, material saving, that's probably all they were looking at at that time, but it didn't go anywhere. The war war put paid to that. In 1959, the United States starts looking at caseless rounds. Um, I have very little information on that. If anyone else does, feel free to put it in the comments. They're done by 1973 and there is no caseless firearm coming out of that that I'm that I'm aware of. Dynamit Nobel in Germany start developing their caseless ammunition in 1961 and by 1967 HK are getting in bed with them to develop the ammunition system that's going to be critical to developing this weapon system. Uh initially that's an electrically primed 7.62 mm round. Um there are various attempts that go on. that they alternate between nitroc cellulose propellant and high ignition temperature propellant of different types. There's a mixture at one point and they eventually come up with something that won't immediately cook off um and is robust enough to to function. So that's the ammunition. Uh, and we end up with this dinky little thing here, which is actually telescoped caseless is what we should probably call this because there is an earlier form with a a shorter propellant body and a pointed bullet sticking out the end. This dummy round here has just a a nod a molded in bullet point recessed into the the nose there. Um, and nothing else really to speak of. This is just a solid piece of plastic. We're not lucky enough to have any ammunition for this system. The weapon itself, the real requirement here is is of course about a new infantry rifle. It's not although the the work in the background is going on on caseless, uh the Bundesphere is keen on caseless as a concept for it's very lightweight and also the ability to come up with a closed system that won't let dirt in. So that they are they're keen to go in that direction, but underpinning all of this more so is a new requirement for a service rifle. So, the standard HK G3 rifle from the 50s um by the 70s is arguably long in the tooth already design-wise and the rifles that were purchased are beginning to age and the Bundesphere is looking to replace those with something more controllable in terms of so effective accuracy for combat out to 300 meters is what they want and I guess they feel like they've gone slightly the wrong direction with the full power cartridge and a rifle that is capable of automatic fire. It is agave by um German nmanllete, but it's pretty hard to control. Um you know, the Soviet Union's gone the AK route, something that you can fire control bursts from the shoulder with. Um and it's very like a very good super submachine gun. The G3 doesn't allow for that. So, the Germans are now thinking, and of course, they've seen what's been happening with the AR-15 in the 60s and the way the the wind is blowing with a lightweight weapon, firing a lightweight, high velocity round, flatter trajectory, greater accuracy, um, and effective accuracy as well in terms of controllability. So, low recoil impulse means more shots on target inferior. So, that's that's the ethos. pretty much everybody is thinking along these lines even if they ultimately go with something um heavier and more powerful. It's sort of stream version 2.0 is is where they want to go with this. Back to the idea of the MP44 but better and much more modern and ideally incorporating this new caseless ammunition technology. Now, part of that increased probability of hit out to 300 m is an optic. So, that's where we get the integral uh optic. And once the design gravitates toward a bullpup configuration, very short overall length, you've kind of got to have an optic. We learned that lesson with the EM1 and EM2 automatic rifles in the 1950s in Britain. The same applies here. So you were kind of wedded to this and it's where the thinking was going anyway at least in in Europe. The other aspect of that is an optimal spread on target or dispersion if you like. So much the same as as the Soviets were looking at with the A94 later on. Um it's all about a volume of fire. Especially if you're going to go with a more efficient, lighter weight projectile that might have less individual striking power, you definitely want to be able to strike with more than one shot on the same target to ensure uh incapacitation. So that's the other aspect of that. That's where the three round burst comes in. And it's worth noting that this is nearly fully ambidextrous. Um, in fact, the earlier cocking systems, the version that we showed in the mockup some some while back, actually did have a uh charging handle that wasn't on one side or the other, but that's the only bit of this that is in fact handed. Um, I guess it is a bit of a showstopper for for left-handed soldiers unless they were permitted to use their I guess you could count it over. It's not ideal, but it's an early, you know, we've gone for, we don't have to worry about case ejection, so that's ambidextrous by default. And we've also got the um fire control mirrored on both sides. So, we're going toward toward that. And of course, the magazine is not brilliantly accessible for anyone to be quite honest, but it's accessible uh equally from left or or right sides. So ergonomics is is a science by this point and that all of these the same kind of development work that went into the SC80 is going into this in terms of um human factors, ergonomics, space models to try and work out what the best where the best location for controls are, albeit dictated by the rather quirky operating system of the weapon. And ultimately the cocking handle ends up as this less than ideal rotary flap on the left side only. Now speaking of small caliber high velocity ammunition um the the Bundesphere realizes or decides it needs to go beyond existing NATO standardization. It needs to go plow its own path and then hope that NATO will standardize on their round. Um I mean the Brits did that with 4.85 as well. I guess everyone did it in their own way and then they all came together in 1979 to have ammunition trials to see who would win and then you'd have to have the headache of reverse engineering your weapon system to fire whatever is selected. Um the British uh had hedged their bets and went with a slightly modified 5.56 which made that very easy to go back to. this system is so dependent on the ammunition. Um NATO standardization was going to be a problem and they were going to have to just step back from that if they deemed that this was the way forward which ultimately they did. Now we often we don't often talk or hear about personalities when it comes to the G11 or in fact HK products generally we tend to just refer to the company. Um, I think the main named individual relevant here is Tio Müller. Um, who holds I think all of the relevant patents for this. We'll see if we can flash the main one up for you. Um, but it is a design team, you know, just as at Enfield with the S80 and um, Santien with the FAMAS and wherever else. We are, you can't do can't do this on your own anymore really. It's not a bloke in a shed. It's a design bureau. Uh, much as Kalashnikov had overseen. um back in the day in the Soviet Union. So uh but I would say if we're going to credit one guy with inventing this thing in its various iterations or the f the first famous version of it that you that you see at least um it's him. They then crack on with developing a weapon system um and the ammunition in parallel. Now interestingly they are onto bullpups right from the start. So 1971 the very first gun that comes out of the project is uh weirdly enough uh 9 millimeter um not so not even caseless yet 9 by19 with a G3 trigger mechanism but it's already this wedgie bull puppy shape. They're already thinking that's the best way forward for modern rifles as a lot of people did at the time. Uh this is followed quickly by the first actual caseless ammunition in 4.9 mm with a weird side ignition arrangement. Um, and that's being fired in a test rig that is a rollerlock system. Interestingly, in 1974, our 2,000 rounds per minute requirement appears. So, this is this idea that you need a very high rate of fire to get that um dispersion of two or three, as it turns out, shots on target. And this is where we get the model two, which is the first shoulder fired weapons. That's 2,000 rounds per minute uh with the drum breach that we see on the final G11. So things are starting to come together mid70s. So by 1976 the round is 4.75x 21 mm which gets renamed 4.7 because 4.75 is too similar to 4.85 because NATO is already starting to get the various nations that are developing new rounds, new new ammunition types um to get their heads together ready for trials at the end of the decade to decide what would be new NATO standard ammunition. And so it's the British, it's the fault of the British that the round ends up being called um 4.7 initially. This is also when the name U G11 first gets applied to the weapon. And it's in November 1976 that we get the first sign of British interest. So there's a visit by um a delegation from the UK mod to HK to see this thing. And uh according to um the German side of things, I haven't been able to find anything this early in our archive from the British side. We were quote impressed by it. And I don't think you could be failed to be impressed by such an advanced concept. That's for sure. Now 1977 sees prototypes five and six appear in this configuration. And these broadly, if we had to describe this as two generations, this is going to be one, this is going to be two. It's a lot more complicated than that, in fact. And there are a couple of transitional designs in between. Um, but essentially we go from a stamped sheet metal receiver with polymer bits to essentially a fully polymer casing with all of the steel components inside that. But the basic size, shape, configuration, um, magazine system, carry handle, optic, that's all there um, already by 1977. So that generation makes it through NATO technical trials. Um but in 1978 HK have to withdraw from the forthcoming 1979 ammunition trials because the essentially the system just isn't perfected enough yet um to be able to to compete. Now according to UK records that's because they were getting cookoffs after four to five shots which is not good. Uh a lack of waterproofing which is interesting given the whole seal system concept. and it just essentially being insufficiently developed as a weapon is a paraphrase of um the UK view on that. Now they may be a bit biased but clearly the Germans also thought it wasn't ready for the the big time. So that's the first major um problem I suppose in the program. So into 1979 now and we get one of the transitional designs. Um, so what starts out as a cocking lever under the fore end, um, which is actually better for ergonomics for left-handed users. It's it's not great being up being up here, um, but it is at least accessible for left and right-handed users. um that's where we start to see a rotary cocking handle on the left side only. So in ergonomics terms that's the main change that happens at that point. Visually the design is a little different. We don't have an example to show you unfortunately. So, this is where it gets a bit weird with the UK take on the G11 because um the German sources actually claim that the UK gets involved in a consortium. They're actually on board with the project um from 1979ish for about 4 years and then they withdraw. Um I can't find anything in our archive which does would cover the period most of that period. Um that does not seem to have actually happened. There were various contracts drawn up for some sort of notional um cooperation agreement, but there doesn't seem to be any formal joining of a of a consortium. Um no direct UK involvement. I think it's safe to say. In fact, it's pretty clear from our archives that what the UK wanted was to have its cake and eat it too. um because it was well into developing the small arms for the 1980s program SA80 and far too committed to jump to a more advanced technological stream as it were and was never going to do so. Um but they did want in on the caseless technology probably for other applications for um aircraft guns was one suggestion and they just realize that this could be the future of ammunition technology. So they want in uh at the ground level. The Germans HK are not particularly keen with that. They want the UK to commit to coming in on the rifle, buying the rifle, maybe even making the rifle under license. Um the UK is very resistant to committing to that. In 1981, in September, there is a demonstration in the UK, the first one I've come across of um the G11. So, some are actually brought over. So, they're the first ones to enter the country, I think, in 1981. And everyone that attends is suitably impressed, but again, there's no real movement from the UK government um or from the small arms factory at Enfield um on actually getting actively involved. However, it's at this point that the G11 sort of goes viral, at least by 1980s standards. So, 1981, it's featured in Jane's Infantry Weapons with an article by Ian Hog, and suddenly a ton of people are aware of this space age firearm and the fact that the Germans are firmly headed toward adopting this as their new service rifle. James Defense Weekly um has an article by John Weekes who calls it quote the most significant development since breach loading rifles which is probably true. Um even though we ultimately know that it hasn't gone anywhere, this really was um an unprecedented attempt to jump forward in firearms technology. So by this point we're on it's now called 4.75x 25. Um, we've got a combination of nitro cellulose and high ignition temperature propellant. They've managed to get the cook off, so the point at which um a hot chamber will cause a round to spontaneously fire. They've managed to get that to 70 rounds rapid fire. U which isn't still isn't great. The goal is 100 rounds, but it's kind of getting there. So 1982 is probably the next big leap forward. That's where we get this basic design first appear, albeit it's in a sort of duo tone. um style and it has a an angled interface between the buttstock and the center part. Um you'll see that on notably prototype 14. So we have a sort of transitional semi-stamped semi-polymer round about prototype 10. Then we go to prototype 14 and that's really u seems to be motivated or it certainly coincides with the advanced combat rifle program. So they're thinking of something that will be suitable for the Bundesphere but also suitable for the US army and for any other nation including Britain who is still hedging its bets at this point. Um sort of one foot in one foot out of of committing to being involved. This is going to be the the the final the finalized design as it were. And that ends up with this this fully polymer outer casing, the integral optic, no option for for iron sights and all of the features that we've seen. So it looks like even by 1984, so well well before this thing exists, the UK is done. They they have to show their hand and admit that they can't take part in this program. And what they what they say is UK mod supports much a commercial venture which would be a rough parallel to the current RSAF Royal Small Arms factory HKG3 rifle program. This is where essentially Enfield is licensed producing HK products but cannot help the Royal Ordinance Factories by giving the required political asurances to the f Federal Republic of Germany mod. So the problem is the UK wants access to the technology. UK government wants access to the technology for the future and they also want the commercial benefit for the small arms factory of getting involved with that. But they absolutely cannot and won't commit to buying any of the guns to adopting them um into the UK military. They can't. They're too far advanced on SAT. And in fact, they state this outright. So um any work on G11 must not jeopardize the SA80s project which is already well advanced. The risks involved in pursuing SA80s are lower in every way. Wink. There are actual and potential shortcomings with the G11 system which even if overcome may still lead to a system inferior to no better or only marginally better than SA80s. The UK would be unwise to tie herself rigidly to this system. So this is really quite a fascinating tension. Um well at this time it's not attention that the the person writing this is presumably quite confident SA80 is going to be a big hit. Um and they think this this is unproven. It's foreign. We're already on course with SAT. It's going to be fine. Um this would be the risky prospect. Well, as we know SAT itself was actually quite a risky prospect. But imagine how much worse it would be if um Enfield was trying to get their head around this thing and not a already quite well understood shortstroke gas operated conventional cased ammunition based system. I think we can agree it would have been a lot worse. Now a a bit of fun here um shows what the thinking was in the in the mid 80s or early to mid 80s. They're thinking that the G11, although it's the next generation of technology on from SA80, um might be overtaken by quote other areas such as laser weapons, liquid propellants, and the like. Although it is thought that there will probably be one generation of small arms after SATs which will operate on principles recognizably similar to present systems. So that that really, you know, um reinforces the the thinking here that this something like this could be the next generation after SA and then after that it's freaking laser beams. An even more fun fact is that Michael Hezeline, who those of you of a certain age will remember as defense minister at this time, was quote presented with a G11. So Mr. Hezeline, where is your G11? I would love to know. Um, unless of course it's the mockup that we ended up with. Um, but I don't think that's the case. I'm absolutely fascinated to know what happened to Michael Hazelstein's G11. And it's not all uh pro80. So, another interesting quote here uh throwing a bit of shade at SA80. Quote, "The G11 can be fired from either shoulder without difficulty and in marked contrast to SA." The school of infantry have made light of this by proving that a left-handed shot can be trained to fire from the right shoulder. How many times have we heard that to do with the SA80? They accept that however competent such a marksman could become, he would be better were he able to mount the rifle naturally, which is rather flowery way of putting what what the counterargument always is, which is it would be better if you could just put it into either shoulder rather than having to chin weld over the over the sight. Of more importance is the question of not being able to fire around left-handed cover without undue exposure. Another debate that's still ongoing when it comes to bull pups or certainly to SAT. The problem is dismissed as acceptable. Not everyone agrees. I love this kind of very subtle British shade that we read uh in the archives. Uh further amusement from from uh the eyebrow raised British view on things. There is a claimed 70% increase in hit probability. That's what the the British are told. And they say the mathematics left us somewhat bewildered. But from the soldiering point of view, from 100 to 300 m, this would seem entirely plausible. There's another note that three round burst theory has yet to be validated against accurate semi-automatic fire. Now, that's um that's very legitimate uh comment, especially as it turns out that three round burst isn't really all it's cracked up to be on just about anything. So I believe all of this is taking place just before 1984 when the French drop out from any agreement they may have committed to. I'm not sure how committed they were either, but the French the British are not committing. The French if I think got a little bit further toward drawing up some sort of agreement. They're out too in 1984. So the last gasp here is in January 1985 the UK requests six rifles for test and evaluation and they give a vague assurance that they are interested again maybe as a follow on to SA80 and HK call their bluff. They refuse to supply six rifles telling the UK they'd be better off waiting for the outcome of the the next round of trials before they receive any trials rifles of their own. essentially because the UK is not going to put up any money to help fund the program and they're not going to commit to adopting any so you jam tomorrow as it were. Um HK say well fine you're you're just another future potential customer um sort of get back in your box. There's a little bit of tension evident in some of these documents. Then in 1988, that's when we get this thing. And this is although it's ACR, it's early ACR. And that is the same thing as K1 build standard. So G11 K1. Um, you can tell that apart from the later design, well, from the earlier designs by being all polymer and having a straight seam between these two components and being all black, not gray and black. Um, you can tell it apart from the later K2, which is the final iteration that's produced. That's the one with the great big blocky handguard. Um Ian features that in his video and that blocky handguard is to facilitate two spare magazines on the gun because the one of the big problems with this thing is these great big long unwieldy magazines. Yes, you can carry a ton more of these lightweight, small, easily stowed rounds, but you can't carry them loaded ready to use in a magazine. This is going to be a or would have been, I think, a real problem with the design. You've got to carry 15 round essentially substitute stripper clips reloading units to bomb your magazines back up. And realistically, there's no loadbearing equipment that's going to take these things. You're going to have your th your loaded magazine, your magazine loaded into the weapon and then a magazine either side for reloads and you swap them out on the gun and then you'd have to duck behind a rock and uh re reload your your magazines. So significantly undermining the potential of the of the caseless ammunition, I think. So the ammunition is now finalized. It's our 4.73x 33 mm. This one's actually marked 4.73. DM10 is the name of the um drill round. It actually works a little bit like a booster charge to get the opturation at the front of of the system. There's an initial charge that pushes the bullet into the lead of the barrel, the first bit of the of the bore before the main charge then on a slight delay initiates and you get so you get ceiling from the expanding two-part chamber um and ceiling at the front that way. ceiling opturation at the rear is essentially a a small chamber into which the firing pin protrudes and hits the primer on the back of the round and then so you get you're not getting a flat face ceiling. There's a little cave essentially behind the uh what would have been the case head but there is no case head. case combusts the um there is sufficient observation in theory purely on the basis of um the expanding chamber there and then into 1989 um the American ACR trials are kicking off and at the same time German troop trials are going on and that's how we end up with that K2 version with the blocky front end also an enlarged trigger guard for for winter gloves and a few sort of quality of life improvements uh and that becomes This is happening in parallel with the ACR program. So the first ACR trials rifles look like this. This is why this one's marked ACR. And then um later on it's um the K2 variant. And a final connection back to S80 is in 1991 Heckler and [ __ ] are in financial troubles uh partly to do with lack of funding from the German government for this thing. Um but also because their their general product range isn't doing very well at this point and they are bought out by the brand new well quite new Royal Ordinance Company, the privatized form of the UK um ordinance factories. And that in a sort of roundabout way ends us we end up with uh an improved serviceable SA80 with the HKA2 program under British ownership of the same company that is trying very hard to make a big leap forward in small arms technology. So there's a there's a weird parallel life story here between the G11 and the SAT. Then in 1992, the American ACR program ends with none of the rifles competing. And there's some pretty interesting interesting stuff in there like the theo ACR with its fchet rounds and of course the G11. None of them meet the 100% improvement in hit probability that they're looking for over the existing M16 A2. They're all, you know, some of them are found to be potentially serviceable, but they don't make that massive leap forward that the Americans are looking for. So America is done by 1992. Germany for its part, the German government have been funding has been cut. Um they are kind of stalling a little bit about there is a formal adoption and technically the formal adoption of the G11 lasts longer than the British EM2 did which is only a few months and this is I think a couple of years in the end but by 1993 the German government finally announces that post reunification it will not be making purchases of the G11. Um, now that's uh essentially as as is often said, reunification leads to less money for defense because there's no great big threat looming. Um, they've got a lot of things to pay for with reintegrating East Germany uh into the West. This is just no longer a priority. Um, it's also an unproven quantity, but on paper at least, they're happy that it's ready for the big time, and it's just that there isn't enough money to proceed. Um, interestingly, the German government seems to blame NATO standardization, saying, "Oh, well, we can't adopt this new thing because it won't be standard with NATO, but they've been committed to breaking NATO standardization for some some time by this point." So, that seems to a little be a little bit of a of a cover for the real story, which is just lack of money. So, that is a positive history from with a particular emphasis on the British side of things of the G11. What? Let's bring this home with what are the pros and cons ultimately of this thing. So, um, some I've already stated. So, we've got very lightweight ammo. Uh, 50% of the weight, 60 to 70% of the volume of a of a 5.56 round. The ammo is has been proven as a concept. As a tech tech demonstrator, this thing has succeeded. It has that low recoil impulse. So on semi-automatic and automatic, this recoiling system in here never hits the back of the receiver. So it's very soft shooting. You will see this in the trials footage that exists online. It's a little bit like the A94 in that you have a a barreled action recoiling inside a casing which helps with felt recoil. So semi-automatic, automatic, on automatic, it's a constant recoil system. It's never bottoming out. It's never imparting a jolt. and causing that classic muzzle rise. When we combine that with the optic, and this this happened even with SA, which had a lot of problems in its A1 incarnation, a low recoiling a low recoil impulse cartridge with a an optical sight, meaning even if it has no magnification like this where you don't have to align target, front sight, rear sight, I instantly everyone's marksmanship scores would go up. This is this is much this has achieved the German um Bundesphere's goals of hit probability out to 300 m I think pretty well. Part of that is the high rate of fire which yes the caseless system and the G11 system allows you to achieve. Then again um Russia managed to achieve that with the A94 with conventional ammunition. So you don't necessarily need caseless ammunition to achieve a high rate of fire, but in theory it does enable a higher rate. We have that semi ambidextrous design, which is a leap forward at the time to some extent, albeit charging handle on one side only. And about the only other pro I can give you is well, it's lighter than SA80 um somewhat. However, it's not light. This this is still a fairly hefty system. Uh with the a lot of the weight at the rear being a bullpup like the SC80 that's somewhat concealed or managed, but necessarily with all the goubbins back here, there's a lot of heft to this thing. As much as it looks lightweight and it's made of plastic on the outside, it's still got some heft to it. Um, not necessarily a showstopper by any means, but if you're going for a lightweight advanced weapon, I wouldn't say that this is it. Something that a negative, a con that is reflected in this very example is the weakness of the cocking handle. So, this is I mean it's maybe not the most robust design in the world anyway. It's a flap. I'm sure we can show you an image of of one intact. just a a plastic flap with a a pin across, perhaps robust enough for normal service. But what would happen is when we're showing you the operation of this thing, the control disc locks in the forward position so that that again so the drum doesn't get misaligned. And if a a soldier then tries to force the cocking handle around to eject the live round to clear the weapon, that's locked shut. That's he's not going to move that. So he will snap the handle off. So that was definitely a weak point that was found in trials and was never actually addressed. Then we have the quote substantial recoil. So as much as I um can positively talk about the recoil on semi and automatic. So automatic is not bottoming out on the back of the gun and it's only supposed to be 460 rounds per minute. I think the ACR trial reports 600 rounds per minute. So anyway, either way, nice and controllable and no great jolt at the back. You see this in the footage. What you also see in the footage is the absolutely tremendous jolt resulting in bruised brows from the optic by the way in ACR trials from the three round burst. So that cumulative effect where the each time the weapon fires in three round burst, it's coming further and further back. It still won't fully bottom out, but that cumulative effect of that massive recoiling mass, you'll see it absolutely rock the guys that are shooting this thing. And that's probably not coincidentally that meant that the three round burst function just didn't work. You'd get two shots on the third one would be off the target. This is what the Russians found when they developed the AN94, Soviet Union, and then Russia. They saw that three round the third round would always be off the target just like it would be with an M16 A2 or something. So they went for two rounds at a very high rate. Uh HK persisted with three round burst and with the result that the third shot was always wasted and the soldier was getting absolutely thrown about the place. Then we have reloading. Um this thing's a bit of a nightmare whether or not you have the magazines on board, which this one doesn't you. So the gun stops firing, you press the catch, crack the magazine, putting by the way your hand uncomfortably close to the muzzle. enough arm length to clear the weapon. Get rid of that. Somehow magically retrieve a magazine until such time as they have the spare ones on the gun because there's no real load bearing equipment that can hold these things. Get your fresh magazine the right way up, which in a panic situation isn't necessarily going to be that easy. Reach forward with your hand in front of the muzzle again. Find the very small magazine. Well, and I've put it in the wrong way up. There we go. Lock that in. I could do that a lot more slickly, obviously. And then you've got to do your 360 crank to chamber the next round. And then you can carry on firing. Now, obviously, you could do that a lot faster than I've just done it, but none of it is like people complain about SA80 or other bull pups. They are an absolute dream compared to reloading this thing. So, again, dictated by this very exotic design. Um, I think that would have been a real problem. Admittedly, you've got 50 rounds on the gun, so that's that's a you you've got a head start at least. We've mentioned the polymer a fair bit, and that was a problem as well. So they found that the center part would melt under sustained fire and that would cause an accuracy shift because your optical sight mount is obviously integrated into this. So any any deformationation of the polymer was causing the metal part under here the reinforcement to move and that was causing problems. So um kind of foreshadowing issues with albeit edge case stuff with G36 later on and perhaps less of an issue but the trigger pull. Everyone in the American trials criticized the trigger pull um as being too heavy and too indistinct. And you can kind of see why. um got multiple springs, bars, linkages, force going in different directions, it's never going to be a great trigger pull on this thing. Then we have the problem of heat. So although I would say cook off, so the heating of rounds in the chamber is in fact solved by the G11 for for the G11 for a rifle. They achieve um 150 rounds continuous, very rapid fire over a short period of time before cookoff. That's very comparable uh to an M4, for example. So, they've made caseless ammunition perform as well in terms of heat management for cookoff in a rifle platform as normal ammunition. That that is also an achievement. However, the heat issues with caseless are not just to do with cooking off. They're also to do with evaporation of lubricant. This thing is very dependent on lubricant. Um, and also expansion of parts. So, if you've got if your brereech drum is expanding at a slightly different rate to the rest of the gun, you're going to get friction. If your lubricants evaporating, you're going to get even more frict friction. So by about 135 rounds rapid fire, so before you even hit your cookoff limit, you're going to get a failure to rotate cylinder or an F FRC stoppage, which is detailed in the ACR manual. Um, now you can manually uh clear that stoppage and carry on, but it's very likely to happen again very soon unless you do a a strip down clean and lubricate the weapon. So that's a serious issue. There's also fouling. Um, now the fouling is actually lead. There is lead content in the propellant block. So you're as well as the as well as those issues to do with heat, you're getting fouling with a lead deposit. It's like a leaded barrel in a shotgun from where you've put a load of rounds through it. That's adding and compounding adding to and compounding those those issues. Now, if you do make it to cookoff temperature, which in an emergency is is of course quite quite possible, um you have 10 seconds to remove the round from the chamber if you've reach if you believe you've reached cookoff temperature uh to remove it. We actually have we have here the operator's manual for the ACR in this nice camo finish. If we flip to page 76, warning in red. If your rifle unexpectedly stops firing with a live round in a hot chamber, remove it fast. Exclamation mark. However, if you cannot remove it within 10 seconds, remove the magazine and wait 15 minutes with the rifle pointing in a safe direction. This way you won't get hurt by the possibility of a round cooking off in the chamber. Now, we do have to remember that these were these were trials. Um they're doing that for for ultimate safety. This is still a weapon that's being developed from the American point of view, but from the German point of view, this thing's ready to issue. So, that's a little bit of a contradiction. You could also get a simple well what would what might would be a simple misfire in a conventional firearm, but in the G11 um warning if a noticeable difference in sound or recoil is experienced or a large cloud of white smoke exits suddenly from the weapon immediately stop firing. I think I'd probably do that without needing to be instructed. Either condition could indicate an incomplete powder burn and/or a bullet stuck in the bore. Clear the weapon and check for unburnt propellant particles in the chamber, breach cylinder, or within the outer housing and for a bullet stuck in the bore. Remove unburned powder and/or bullet from bore before resuming firing. If bullet cannot be removed from the bore, see your armorer. So, pretty serious. Um, and that could be a problem to do with ammunition manufacturer. If a round is fractured due to poor handling or if the if the um mechanism is not in the correct position and you slam a magazine home, you can fracture your own round and you might get an incomplete burn, cloud of white smoke, all the problems they're talking about. With a misfire of any kind in a conventional firearm, you just clear that dud round out of there and you carry on firing. With this thing, you've got to hope that your ejector lever clears out all of the broken bits because any of those broken bits could foul the drum and stop the weapon from working and you are done shooting. So, these problems result in a 3,000 round life for the chamber. So, you have to strip the whole thing down um and essentially re recondition it for use. So you at this stage of development, you could only get 3,000 rounds out of the rifle, which is not great. And again, at a point where the German government was supposed to be adopting this thing. The US lead on the project on the ACR side, HKUSA, Jim Chhatz, he did concede that uh opturation in the system or any system was likely an insurmountable technical obstacle to successful military fielding. So having um been quite positive about where this technology was going and done his best to to help it along um by the mid sort of 2010s he was conceding that caseless was a dead duck. Unfortunately, that was um underscored by the development of polymer cased ammunition, both the cased telescoped form, so like this, but in a cylindrical plastic case that does need to be got rid of from the system. Um, gives you nearly the same weight saving and a lot of the same advantages without any of these drawbacks. And then there's even modern conventional cased um polymer ammunition with a normal case profile which works in the same way but offers you lighter weight ammunition. So all of this results in um the program manager in the US saying as clever as the G11 is it is where it should be relegated to history as should all caseless ammo for military rifles. A bold statement. It does look like Caseless might might be dead. And that means no M41A pulse rifle. I'm very sorry to say. You were on camera for way longer than I thought you would be. That was really hard. Yeah. I could have made it easier on you, couldn't I? Yeah. Didn't though. No. Oh well. It's all worth it. It's all gains, isn't it?