Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: maniac%garnet.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George W. Herbert)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Caseless weapons.
Summary: G-11: caseless
Message-ID: <6455@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 May 89 01:25:19 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 26
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: maniac%garnet.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George W. Herbert)


In article <6260@cbnews.ATT.COM> mcvax!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian@uunet.UU.NET (Adrian Hurt) writes:
>In article <6186@cbnews.ATT.COM> wesommer@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Sommerfeld) writes:
>>Without a casing, it seems that hot residues would tend to build up in
>>the chamber, making it possible that a subsequent round would be set
>>off prematurely (perhaps while the breech was still open), which would
>>be a Bad Thing.
>Never mind residues, heat in the breech can do it; and to guns firing cased
>ammo too. The H&K MP5 can do this; the heat from previously fired rounds sets

The G-11 (german issue wpn of near future (now?)) fires caseless ammo.  It 
was based in RDX instead of nirtocellulose, because it's possible to get RDX
to both burn cleanly and not cook off too often.  It just takes time and
effort to get the details right, hence the long delay in perfecting the
concept to issuable level.  
	The propellant is balanced in the region where RDX can be made to
not detonate but burn (deflagrate) Very quickly: gun propellant speeds.
The composition had to be carefully monitored because RDX much prefers to
just sorta burn or go all the way and detonate, not good in either case.
	It also had to be balanced between enough additives not to cook off
and few enough that it didn't leave residue.  HK believes now that they have it
right, and that this is the wave of the future.  I'm inclined to agree.