FN P90’s magazine turns the bullets 90 degrees by turning them with its feed geometry. It kinda looks like a slide for bullets if you squint hard enough.
HK G11 uses about as many parts as in an average Swiss watch to do the same thing.
There were far simpler caseless mechanisms devised. But the G11 fired caseless ammo, rotated it 90 degrees and more importantly had a burst mode where the barrel and magazine recoiled together continually throughout the 3 round burst, only returning to battery after the 3rd round was fired. That latter one added a lot of complexity.
It’s also pretty fast at about 2000 rpm in burst mode. If they hadn’t used caseless ammo this would have been a really reliable gun.
Loading it by turning the fold out knob is a bit wonky though. No satisfying chambering clanks like with the M14 or G3. Probably a plus in real combat.
It’s not even that caseless. The bullets sit in a rectangular box that contains the primer, propellant and a plastic cap to center it. The ammo really is the worst part of that thing.
FN P90’s magazine turns the bullets 90 degrees by turning them with its feed geometry. It kinda looks like a slide for bullets if you squint hard enough. HK G11 uses about as many parts as in an average Swiss watch to do the same thing.
I wonder if the G11’s mechanism is so overengineered because it uses caseless cartridges.
There were far simpler caseless mechanisms devised. But the G11 fired caseless ammo, rotated it 90 degrees and more importantly had a burst mode where the barrel and magazine recoiled together continually throughout the 3 round burst, only returning to battery after the 3rd round was fired. That latter one added a lot of complexity.
It’s also pretty fast at about 2000 rpm in burst mode. If they hadn’t used caseless ammo this would have been a really reliable gun.
Loading it by turning the fold out knob is a bit wonky though. No satisfying chambering clanks like with the M14 or G3. Probably a plus in real combat.
It’s not even that caseless. The bullets sit in a rectangular box that contains the primer, propellant and a plastic cap to center it. The ammo really is the worst part of that thing.