Heckler und Koch G11 (Germany)

HK G11 rifle


HK G11K2 pre-productional rifle


HK G11 rifle with the optional optical scope installed


second prototype of the G11 (HKpro.com)


13th prototype of the G11 (HKpro.com)


caseless ammunition - early variant at the left, latest variant DM11 (cutout view) - at the right


schematic drawing of the G11 bolt & feeding system

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Caliber: 4.7 mm caseless
Action: Gas operated, rotating breech
Overall length: 750 mm
Barrel length: 540 mm
Weigth: 3.6 kg empty
Magazine capacity: 50 or 45 rds

The development of the G11 rifle was started in the late 1960's, when West German government decided to replace existing G3 rifle with lighter weapon with much better hit probability.

The initial studies lead to the idea of the small-caliber, rapid-fire rifle that fires caseless ammunition. To ensure sufficient stopping/killing power for small-caliber bullets used, the rifle should had have the three-round bursts capability and high capacity magazine.

The new design, called G11, was created by german company Hecler und Koch, with the Dynamit Nobel company in team. The HK was responsible for the rifle itself, while Dynamit Nobel had to develop caseless ammunition.

The basic concept of the G11 is as follows:
The rifle features unique cylinder breech/chamber system that rotates 90 degrees. The cartridges in the magazine are located above the barrel, bullets down. Prior to each shot, first cartridge is pushed down from magazine into chamber and then breech/chamber rotates 90 degrees to align the cartridge with the barrel (see pic). After that, the cartridge is fired and the breech/chamber rotates back, ready for the next cartridge to be chambered. In the case of the cartridge ignition failure, the failed cartridge is pushed down from the chamber by the next cartridge. The breech can be manually "cocked" by the rotating handle at the side of the rifle, located beyond the pistol handle. The cocking handle does not move when gun is fired. Another interesting detail is that barrel, rotating breech, feed module and magazine are mounted in the housing that can move in the rifle back and forth. When firing single shots, the housing moves back and forward after the each shot. When firing the full-auto, the housing moves back and forward during each shot, resulting in moderate rate of fire of some 600 round per minute. But, when firing the three-round bursts, second and third cartridges are feed and fired as soon as the chamber is ready for it, and third bullet leaves the barrel PRIOR to the moment when the housing becomes to its rearward position. This results in wery high rate of fire with three-shots bursts - ca. 2000 rounds per minute. Also, this results in that the actual recoil affects the rifle AFTER the last bullet in the burst is fired.

Rifle featured built-in 1X optical sight with simple circle aiming reticle. Early prototypes featured one 50 rounds polymer magazine, while latest versions featured 45 rounds magazines - one in the loaded position within the movable housing and two spare magazines on the top of the rifle, asides from the loaded magazine.

The caseless ammunition in its early appearance was designed as a block of the propellant, coated with flammable laquer, with bullet and primer "glued on" the propellant. Final ammunition design DM11, that appeared in the mid-1980s, featured "telescopic" design, when bullet was fully enclosed in the block of the propellant. The cartridge propelled the bullet that weights 3.25 gramms, to the 930-960 meters per second.

Early prototypes were prone to the ammunition cook-offs during the sustained fire, but later Dynamit Nobel solved this issue.

In the late 1980s the Bundeswehr (West German Army) began the field tests of the pre-production G11s. After the initial tests, some improvements were devised, such as removable optical sight, mounting of two spare magazines on the rifle, and bayonet/bipod mount under the muzzle.

The modified variant, called G11K2, was tested in 1989, scoring at least 50% better combat accuracy when compared to G3 rifle. Initial batch of some 1000 G11K2s was received by Bundeswehr in 1990 or so, but due to some reasons the whole programme was cancelled by German Government. Main reasons of this cancellation were, in my opinion, the lack of fundings after the re-union of the West and East Germanies, and the general NATO policy for unification of the ammunition and even magazines for the assault rifles.

The slightly modified G11 was also tested in the USA under the ACR (Advanced Cobat Rifle) programme, in 1990. The ACR programme was not intended to result in adoption of the new rifle for the US Army, just to test new technologies and designs, and the G11 proved itself as a very accurate, comfortable to handle and fire, and reliable weapon.

SIG SG-550 SG-551 SG-552 Stgw.90 assault rifles (Switzerland)

Complete family of SIG 55x rifles, top to bottom: SIG SG 550 / Stgw.90, SIG SG 551-LB SWAT, SIG SG 551 and SIG SG 552 SWAT

SIG SG 550 / Stgw.90 assault rifle, left side view

SIG SG 551 SWAT compact assault rifle for police/special forces use, fitted with Trijicon ACOG scope, tactical light, front grip and cheek rest

SIG SG 551 SWAT short assault rifle for police/special forces use, fitted with Trijicon ACOG scope, tactical light and front grip; modern production version with ful-length Picatinny rail on top and folding iron sights.

	SIG SG 550 / Stgw.90	SIG SG 551 (SG 551 LB)	SIG SG 552
Caliber	5.56x45mm	5.56x45mm	5.56x45mm
Length (stock open / folded)	998 / 772 mm	833 / 607 mm (924 / 698 mm)	730 / 504 mm
Barrel length	528 mm	363 mm (454 mm)	226 mm
Weight empty	4.05 kg w/o magazine	3.3 (3.4) kg w/o magazine	ca. 3.0 kg w/o magazine
Magazine capacity	20 or 30 rounds	20 or 30 rounds	20 or 30 rounds
Rate of fire	700 rounds/min	700 rounds/min	780 rounds/min

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In the late 1970s the Swiss army began the search for a new, smaller caliber rifle to replace old,full-power 7.5mm Stgw.57 (SIG 510) automatic rifle. Initial tests were done with the 5.6 x 48 Eiger and 6.5 x 48 GP80 ammunition. Prototype rifles were developed by SIG (based on their SG-540 design) and by the state-owned Waffenfabrik Bern (W+F). However, the Swiss army selected a slightly improved version of the 5.56 x 45 NATO cartridge as the 5.6 mm GP90, and further testing proved the superiority of the SIG SG-541 rifle over its W+F rival. In 1983, the Swiss Army officially adopted the SIG SG-541 as the Sturmgewehr-90, or Stgw.90 although due to financial reasons production began only in 1986. Currently, the Stgw.90 is a standard Swiss service rifle.
The Swiss army took its last deliveries of the Stgw.90 in the mid-1990s, but these rifles are still offered for export by the international SIGARMS organization, as well as sold for the civilian market in semi-automatic only versions. In export form this rifle is known as the SIG SG-550. "Carbine" and subcompact "Commando" assault rifle versions are available in the form of SIG SG-551 and SIG SG-552, respectively. Civilian versions of the SIG SG-550 and 551 are known as the Stgw.90 PE in Switzerland or SIG 550-SP and 551-SP when sold for export.
The SIG-550 is often referred as the finest 5.56 mm rifle ever made. It is also, not surprisingly, quite expensive.
Recently, SIG Arms has introduced a civilian / law-enforcement offspring of the SG-550, known as SIG 556. This is a semi-automatic rifle, altered to accept M16-type magazines and fitted with "Americanized" furniture.

Basically, the SIG-550 is a somewhat lightened and refined SIG SG-540/541 rifle. SIG SG-550 is gas operated, with gas piston removably attached to the bolt carrier, and with rotating bolt with two massive lugs. The recoil spring is located around the gas piston rod, above the barrel, and the bolt carrier attached to the gas piston rod by the mean of removable charging handle. The most compact weapon in the line, the SIG SG-552, is similar to SIG SG-551 but it has even shorter handguard and barrel. Due to short barrel and gas piston, SG-552 has return spring relocated to the rear part of the receiver, and thus it has an altered bolt carrier and upper receiver. The gas port has gas regulator with two different open and one closed position (latter for firing rifle grenades). The receiver of all SG-55x series guns is made from stamped steel and has two major parts, upper and lower, which are connected by pushpins. The barrel is screwed into the upper receiver. The trigger unit has a safety/fire selector switch on the left side of the receiver, with 3 settings: safe, semi-auto, full-auto. If desired, additional module could be installed in the trigger mechanism to allow 3-rounds burst mode. Rear sights are drum-type (like those found on Heckler-Koch rifles). On certain current production models rear sight is replaced with full-length Picatinny style rail with folding back-up reat sight. SIG SG-550 has muzzle compensator/flash hider of NATO-standard diameter, so it is possible to launch rifle grenades from the muzzle. The SIG-550 can be fitted with detachable folding bipods under the handguard, and is issued with side-folding, skeletonized polymer buttstock. Every rifle of SIG SG-550 family can be fitted with proprietary, quick detachable scope mount, although current production rifles are usually fitted with one or more picatinny rails. Swiss Stgw.90 are often seen with 4X fixed power scope, export versions can be equipped with commercial telescope sights, ACOG or "red dot" sights, depending on customer preferences. SIG SG-550 also can be fitted with bayonet. Standard magazine capacity for Swiss military Stgw.90 rifles is 20 rounds, as Swiss tactical doctrine calls for accurate semi-automatic fire, reserving full automatic mode only for emergency purposes. Standard magazines can be clamped together for ease of carry, using integral studs on the magazine walls. For those who might require more firepower, SIG also produces 30-round magazines.

The carbine version of the SIG-550 is called SG-551 and has shorter barrel. Quite recently, SIG also introduced a "long barrel" version of the SG-551, which is known as SIG SG-551LB. SIG-551 can't fire rifle grenades.

IMI Galil assault rifle (Israel)

Galil ARM 5.56mm. The only differences from the Galil AR are the folding bipod and carrying handle

same rifle, with bipods unfolded. Insert shows the left-side fire selector / safety switch with Hebrew markings.

Galil AR 7.62mm. Note the longer barrel and deeper magazine

Galil SAR 5.56mm with shorter barrel (with older type brownish color wooden forearm)

Galil MAR 5.56mm, or Micro-Galil. The most modern Galil derivative.

	Galil AR / ARM	Galil AR / ARM	Galil SAR	Galil MAR
Caliber	7.62x51mm NATO	5.56x45mm NATO
Overall length (stock open / folded)	1050 / 810 mm	979 / 742 mm	840 / 614 mm	690 / 445 mm
Barrel length	535 mm	460 mm	332 mm	195 mm
Weight, empty	4 kg (without bipod an carrying handle)	3.95 kg (4.35 kg ARM)	3.75 kg	2.95 kg
Magazine capacity	25 rounds	35 or 50 rounds		35 rounds
Rate of fire	650 rounds per minute	650 rounds per minute	650 rounds per minute	600 - 750 rounds per minute
Effective range of fire	500 - 600 meters	450 meters	300 meters	150-200 meters

The experience, gained by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during the Six-days war of 1967, showed the deficiencies of the FN FAL rifles, which were the main armament of the IDF infantry. The FAL rifles were too sensitive to fine sand and dust of Arab deserts, and too long and bulky to carry and maneuver. On the other hand, the same war showed the advantages of the Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, used by Arab infantry with great success. After the end of this war IDF decided to develop a new assault rifle, which will eventually replace the FN FAL battle rifles and some of the UZI submachine guns. It was also decided that the new assault rifle should be built around the new American low-impulse cartridge, known as 5.56x45mm. During the late 1960s the IDF tested two rival designs, one of the Uziel Gal, and the other of the Israel Galili. The latter design, based on the Finnish Valmet Rk.62 assault rifle (a license-built AK-47 clone), eventually won the competition and was selected as a new IDF assault rifle in the 1973, but its actual adoption was delayed by the next Israeli-Arab Yom Kippur war of the 1973. The machinery and documentation package was bought from Valmet and transferred to the state owned Israel Military Industries (IMI) company. There are some rumors that the first production Galil rifles were built on the Valmet-made receivers. The basic Galil rifle later evolved into several configurations, including the full-size 5.56mm AR and ARM assault rifles, compact 5.56mm SAR rifle for the tank and vehicle crews, 7.62mm NATO AR selective fire and 7.62mm NATO semi-automatic Galatz sniper rifle, 5.56mm MAR subcompact assault rifle, also known as Micro-Galil, and some other modifications, like the unsuccessful .30 Carbine Magal police rifle.

While being a successful weapon, the Galil was not widely issued to the IDF during its lifetime, because during the late 1960s and early 1970s Israel received large shipments of the US M16 and CAR-15 assault rifles at the very low prices. M16 rifles became the major armament of the IDF, with the Galils mostly issued to the Armored corps, Artillery corps and some units of the Israeli Air Forces. The Galil rifles were exported to the various South American, African and Asian countries. Estonia also received some Galil rifles in the early 2000s. The slightly modified Galil rifle is manufactured by the South African Vektor company, a division of the DENEL. Those models included the R-4 (Galil AR), R-5 (Galil SAR) and R-6 (Galil MAR) assault rifles, and are used by the South African Military. Another offspring of the Galil is the Croatian APS-95 assault rifle. The semi-automatic only versions of the both 5.56mm and 7.62mm Galil AR rifles were widely sold to both domestic and foreign civilian and law enforcement markets.

In general, the Galil rifles are fine weapons, but somewhat heavy and expensive to manufacture.

Technical description.
Basically, the Galil assault rifle can be described as a modified Kalashnikov AK-47 design, and a detailed description of its functioning can be found in respective article at this site. The key differences between the Galil and the AK-47 are as follows. The Galil featured a machined steel receivers of the original AK-47 rifles, but of slightly different shape. The AK-47-style safety - selector switch at the right side of the gun is complemented by the additional smaller switch at the left side of the receiver, above the pistol handle. The cocking handle is bent upward, so it can be operated with either hand. The sights of the Galil featured a front hooded post, mounted on the gas block, with the rear diopter sight, mounted on the receiver top cover. Rear sight is of the flip-up type, with settings for 300 and 500 meters. Additional folding night sights with luminous inserts can be raised into position, which allows to aim the gun in the low light conditions at the ranges of up to 100 meters. The barrel and the flash hider can be used to launch the rifle grenades from the barrel, using the blanc or live cartridges (depending on the rifle grenade type). The Galil ARM also features a folding detachable bipods and a carrying handle. The bipod base incorporates a bottle opener and a wire cutter. The standard folding buttstock is patterned after FN FAL Para, folds to the right to save the space. Some of the late production Micro-Galil (MAR) rifles also are fitted with the Picatinny-type rail, which allows to mount various sighting devices. Standard AR and ARM rifles can be fitted with scope mounting rail on the left side of the receiver. All 5.56mm Galil rifles are fed using proprietary 35 or 50 rounds curved box magazines with AK-47 style locking. M16-type magazines can be used via the special adapter. 7.62mm Galil rifles are fed using proprietary 25 rounds box magazines. Civilian semi-automatic Galil variants sometimes are fitted with 10 rounds magazines to comply with local firearms laws.

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GIAT FAMAS assault rifle (France)

FAMAS F1 (original version). Note original straight FAMAS magazine that holds 25 rounds

FAMAS rifle stripped into major components

FAMAS G2 (latest version, with 30 rounds STANAG magazine)

Modifications of the FAMAS G2, now available from GIAT Industries

FAMAS-FELIN system prototype (2001). Modified FAMAS G2 rifle fitted with electronic day/night optical sight, laser rangefinder and an interface to the other soldier equipment, such as helmet-mounted display (HMD).

Technical data

	FAMAS F1	FAMAS G2
Caliber	5.56mm NATO (.223rem)
Action	Delayed blowback
Overall length	757 mm
Barrel length	488 mm
Weight	3.61 kg with empty magazine	3.8 kg with empty magazine
Magazine capacity	25 rounds (proprietary)	30 rounds (STANAG)
Muzzle velocity	960 m/s	925 m/s
Rate of fire	900-1000 rounds per minute	1000-1100 rounds per minute
Effective range	300 meters	450 meters

FAMAS stands for Fusil d'Assaut de la Manufacture d'Armes de St-Etienne (Assault Rifle by St-Etienne Arms Factory - a member of the French govt. owned GIAT Industries concern). Development of this rifle began in 1967, under the leadership of the Paul Tellie, a French arms designer. This new rifle was intended to replace in service the MAS Mle.49/56 semi-automatic rifles, MAT-49 submachine guns and some MAC Mle.1929 light machine guns. First FAMAS prototype had been built in 1971. French military began to test this rifle in 1972-73, but, in the meantime, France adopted a Swiss-designed SIG SG-540 5.56mm assault rifle as an intermediate solution. FAMAS rifle was adopted by the French in 1978 and since then became a standard French Army shoulder fired small arm, known among the French soldiers as "Le Clairon" (the bulge). According to the Janes Infantry Weapons 2000, the total number of FAMAS F1 rifles built is estimated at 400 000, and the production of the F1 variant is now completed. It is still used by the French army, and was exported in small numbers to some countries like the Senegal or United Arab Emirates. Since then, the GIAT Industries developed an improved version of the F1, known as the G1. This rifle featured an enlarged trigger guard, that covered a whole hand, and a slightly improved plastic handguards. G1 was an intermediate design, and was consequently replaced by the latest production model, the FAMAS G2, which appeared circa 1994. This rifle has the G1-style enlarged trigger guard but can accept only STANAG type (M16-compatible) magazines. It was adopted and purchased by the French Navy in the 1995, with the French Army soon following the suit, and also offered for export. At the present time the slightly upgraded FAMAS G2 rifle is used as a platform for the future FELIN system (a French counterpart to the US "Land Warrior" programme), which incorporates a various electronic sights and sensors, connected to the soldier carried equipment, like the helmet mounted displays, ballistic and tactical computers etc. GIAT also now offers some variations of the basic FAMAS G2 rifle, such as "Submachine gun" with shortened receiver and barrel of 320 mm long, "Commando" with the standard receiver and the 405 mm barrel, and the "Sniper", with longer and heavier 620 mm barrel and an integral scope mount instead of the carrying handle.

The FAMAS rifles seen some action during the operation "Desert Storm" in Kuwait in 1991, as well as in some peace-keeping operations in the mid and late 1990s, and proved itself as a reliable and trustworthy weapons.

Technical description
The FAMAS assault rifles are built using the bullpup layout, with the magazine housing behind the pistol grip and trigger. The gun is built around the compact receiver, which is enclosed in the plastic housing. FAMAS is one of the relatively rare systems that uses a lever delayed blowback action, borrowed from the French AAT-52 machine gun, but originally invented by the Hungarian designer Paul de Kiraly prior to the Second World War, and improved by the Paul Tellie for the FAMAS rifle. This system consists of the two-part bolt (breech block) with the delay lever interposed between the light forward part (the bolt itself), which has a bolt face and the provisions for extractor mountings, and the heavier rear part (the bolt carrier). The lever is pivotally mounted on the front part of the breech block (bolt), with its lower legs resting against the cross pin in the receiver and the upper legs resting against the face on the bolt carrier (assuming that the bolt group is in its forward position). Gun is fired from the closed bolt. When cartridge is ignited and fired, the gas pressure against the cartridge base pushes the cartridge case back in the fluted chamber, against the bolt face. The bolt begin to move back under the pressure, but at initial stages of the movement, when the pressure is still high, the delay lever transforms the short movement of the bolt into the longer movement of the heavier bolt carrier, thus delaying the opening of the bolt. As soon as the pressure in the chamber is dropped down to reasonable level, the lever is completely withdrawn from the contact with the cross pin, and from this moment on both bolt and its carrier begin to move back with the same speed, compressing the return spring and extracting and ejecting the spent case. The bolt face has extractor mounting points on both sides, so user can mount the extractor claw on the left or the right side of the bolt, which will result in the left-side or right-side extraction of the spent cartridge cases through the ejection ports on both sides of the gun. One of the ejection ports, which is not used at the moment, is always covered with detachable cheek piece, which can be installed on either side of the gun, as required. This allows to solve the problem of the left-hand use, which is essential for most bullpup rifles. The charging handle is located above the receiver, under the carrying handle, is shaped like trigger and completely ambidextrous. The charging handle does not reciprocate when gun is fired.

The firing mechanism unit is contained in the detachable plastic housing just behind the magazine port. The unit is linked to the trigger by the long trigger rod, and the safety / fire selector is located within the triggerguard, just ahead of the trigger. The selector has 3 positions for safe, single shots, and automatic fire. Additional three-rounds bursts module is built into the firing mechanism housing, with the additional selector under the housing, behind the magazine, that allows for the unlimited full automatic fire or 3 rounds burst modes to be selected (when the main selector is in the full auto mode).

The sighting system of the FAMAS consists of the blade front and the diopter rear sight, adjustable for range and with two flip-up apertures, for good visibility and low light conditions. Both sights are mounted on the pillars, that are in turn mounted on the receiver, and concealed by the large plastic carrying handle. The carrying handle has the provisions for mounting a Weaver or Picatinny-style sight bases. A special receivers also available with the integral sights base instead of the carrying handle.

The standard FAMAS barrel is 488 mm long and has a NATO-standard 22mm diameter flash hider, which also is used to launch rifle grenades from the muzzle. Current FAMAS barrels are rifled with 1:9 twist (1 turn in 228 mm, right hand), so both older M193 and newer 5.56mm NATO / SS109 / M855 ammunition can be fired with good results. Another interesting fact about FAMAS barrels is that it has only 3 groves (while most other rifles have 4 to 6 grooves). The "Commando" variant has the shorter barrel which cannot be used to launch grenades. Both standard and the Commando versions can be fitted with the 40mm M203 underbarrel grenade launcher, if required. Every FAMAS rifle (except for the shortest "Submachine gun" version) can be fitted with folding, non-adjustable lightweight bipods that can be folded along the gun body when not in use. On most rifles these bipods are fitted as a standard. Every FAMAS rifle is equipped with the carrying sling and with detachable bayonet.