The 4. 73 x 33mm caseless ammunition used in the Heckler & Koch G11 rifle, shown disassembled. The Heckler & Koch G11 is a non-production prototype Bullpup Assault rifle developed during the 1970s and 1980s by the Gesellschaft für Hülsenlose Gewehrsysteme The components are, from left to right, the solid propellant, the primer, the bullet, and a plastic cap that serves to keep the bullet centered in the propellant block.

Caseless ammunition is firearm ammunition that aims to eliminate the metal case that typically holds the primer, or igniter, and the explosive charge ("gunpowder") that propels the bullet. A firearm is a Tool that projects either single or multiple Projectiles at high velocity through a controlled explosion Ammunition, often referred to as ammo, is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which The M acro E xpansion T emplate A ttribute L anguage complements TAL, providing macros which allow the reuse of code across

Design

In typical caseless ammunition designs, the powder, primer, and bullet are held together with a binding agent. Glue or adhesive is a compound that adheres or bonds two items together Other possible caseless systems might involve loading only projectiles and using a chemical or other explosive agent ignited electrically rather than mechanically. A projectile is any object propelled through space by the exertion of a force which ceases after launch A chemical substance is a Material with a definite chemical composition. An explosive material is a material that either is chemically or otherwise Energetically unstable or produces a sudden expansion of the material usually accompanied Electronic firing refers to the use of an electric current to fire a cartridge, instead of a Percussion cap.

Advantages

Caseless ammunition would have a variety of advantages. Removing the need to eject an empty metal casing:

• Allows a firearm to have a simpler, more reliable, and inexpensive design, by eliminating the components needed to eject casings.
• Allows the firearm to be better sealed against dirt and moisture, by getting rid of the ejection port (a port is still needed to extract chambered rounds, but not needed to be as big as a standard ejection port).
• Allows a firearm to be used by right- and left-handed users without modification
• Eliminates the hazard of ejecting hot, fast-moving casings
• Means that ammunition weighs less, allowing a soldier more mobility, or the option to carry more ammunition for a higher rate of fire and/or longer mission
• Reduces the cost of manufacturing the ammunition and avoids consuming raw supplies of metal
• Theoretically could be beneficial in sniping missions as the ejection of shells is a concern when trying to avoid being detected by enemy combatants. READ DISCUSSION PAGE BEFORE MAKING ANY EDITS TO CAPTION BELOW http//en
• Increases the effectiveness of a suppressor due to a closed breach
• Slightly increases the power of a firearm because no energy is needed to remove a spent casing.
• Removes the need to carry around hot casing in order to hide one's location or to prevent forensic analysis.

The elimination of casings for heavier weapons is particularly attractive for military aircraft. A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing Aircraft that is in the current employ of a Military power Empty casings are problematic for moving aircraft: ejecting them creates the risk of foreign-object damage, and making provision to retain them requires extra space. The GAU-7 cannon was an attempt to implement this concept. The Ford- Philco GAU-7/A was an abortive program initiated by United States Air Force in the late 1960s to develop a new Cannon to replace the M61 Vulcan

Caseless ammunition would be beneficial to infantry forces owing to its lighter weight. The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists Its reduced weight would enable the entire logistics supply system, including the end-user, to carry much more ammunition. Logistics is the management of the flow of Goods, Information and other resources including Energy and people between the point of origin and the point Increased supply would increase the practicality of weapons with a high rate of fire and of longer missions, while requiring fewer resources be devoted to supply chains. A supply chain or logistics network is the system of organizations people technology activities information and resources involved in moving a product or service from The lack of casing also would provide a tactical advantage to any soldiers in a hostile environment. A soldier is a general English term that refers to a member of a land component of National Armed forces. A soldier could carry the same amount of ammunition as with regular cased rounds, but at a reduced weight to increase user endurance and mobility. For example, the caseless ammunition for the Voere VEC-91 weighs about one third as much as regular ammunition for the same caliber [1]. The Voere VEC-91, made by Voere, is the first commercial sporting rifle to combine Caseless ammunition and Electronic firing. The lack of casings also makes such ammunition, at least in theory, cheaper to manufacture, since it would consume less material. Manufacturing (from Latin manu factura, "making by hand" is the use of tools and labor to make things for use or sale Reduced cost would further enable greater use.

Disadvantages

Caseless ammunition is still experimental, and has not been perfected. The current generation of binding agents, used to coalesce the powder and priming charge, can still foul weapons. A weapon is a Tool used either in Hunting, or attack or defence in Combat for the purpose of subduing enemy personnel or to destroy enemy weapons Rounds of this kind of ammunition do not hold up well in wet climates or under the stress of combat conditions and tend to stress poorly in magazines and high rate of fire weapons, often breaking or otherwise disintegrating, as a result of being violently shaken around inside the magazine. Climate encompasses the temperatures humidity rainfall atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorogical factors in a given region over long periods of The ComBat was an Aluminium Cricket bat and the subject of an incident that occurred at the WACA cricket ground in Perth in December 1979. A weapon is a Tool used either in Hunting, or attack or defence in Combat for the purpose of subduing enemy personnel or to destroy enemy weapons The G11 used a floating barrel with a spring as a recoil buffer, presumably to mitigate this problem. A Free-floating barrel is a specific design technology used in highly accurate Rifles particularly Match grade rifles to increase the accuracy of the weapon A recoil buffer is a factory-installed or aftermarket component of Firearms which serves to reduce the velocity of and/or cushion the impact of recoilling parts of a firearm A muzzle brake might also serve to reduce the stress on the ammunition. Muzzle brakes and recoil compensators are devices that are fitted to the muzzle of a Firearm or Cannon to redirect propellant gases with

An additional problem for automatic weapons is heat build-up. An automatic firearm is a Firearm that automatically extracts and ejects the fired cartridge case and loads a new case usually through the energy of the fired An advantage of conventional metal cartridges is that the casing absorbs a large portion of the waste heat of firing, protects the propellant from the heat of the chamber, and protects the chamber from being directly heated by the ignition of the propellant. Ejecting the hot, empty casing removes some of the ignition heat from the weapon, which helps to avoid "cook off" (premature firing of rounds due to a weapon's extreme heat). Cooking off (or thermally induced firing) refers to Ammunition exploding prematurely due to heat in the surrounding environment With caseless rounds, other means of reducing waste heat are necessary, especially in automatic fire. The approach taken with the G11 was to use ammunition which had a higher ignition temperature, which reduced the risk of cook-off. The Heckler & Koch G11 is a non-production prototype Bullpup Assault rifle developed during the 1970s and 1980s by the Gesellschaft für Hülsenlose Gewehrsysteme One possible solution would be to use an open bolt, which would prevent the round from entering the chamber until it is ready to be fired anyway. A semi or fully automatic Firearm is said to fire from an open bolt if when ready to fire the bolt and working parts are held to the rear A historical approach to cook-off was water cooling, like with the M1917 Browning machine gun. Water cooling is a method of Heat removal from components As opposed to Air cooling, Water is used as the heat transmitter The Browning Model 1917 Machine Gun is a Heavy machine gun used by the United States armed forces in World War I World War II Korea, and to a limited Whether or not this would make caseless ammunition more reliable remains to be seen.

For law enforcement or other forensic activities, the lack of spent casings at a scene makes determination of a shooter's firing position, and the type of weapon more difficult. The lack of a spent casing also requires recovery of forensically useful bullets or bullet fragments to tie a firing to a particular weapon.

Caseless firearms

Arguably the first use of caseless ammunition was the "rocket ball" projectile patented by Walter Hunt in 1848. Walter Hunt (1796 – 1859 was an American mechanic He lived and worked in New York state. A charge of black powder was placed inside a hollow at the back of specially shaped Minié ball. The Minié ball (or minie ball) is a type of muzzle-loading Rifle Bullet named after co-developer Claude-Étienne Minié. These rounds were used by Hunt in a prototype repeating rifle. The rounds proved too underpowered and unreliable for general use, and the weapon was not produced. Similar ammunition was used by the Volcanic Arms company for the Volcanic rifle, the predecessor to the Henry rifle, the first practical repeating rifle. The Henry repeating rifle is a Lever-action, Tubular magazine Breech-loading Rifle.

One of the first caseless firearm and ammunition systems produced was actually made by Daisy, the airgun maker, in 1968. Daisy is a company that makes and sells inexpensive BB guns and other Air guns History Daisy was started in 1882 as Plymouth Iron Windmill Company in "Air rifle" and "Air pistol" redirect here For other uses see Air gun (disambiguation An air gun ( air rifle Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The V/L Rifle used a . 22 caliber (5. 5 mm) low powered caseless round with no primer. The rifle was basically a spring-piston air rifle, but when used with the V/L ammunition the energy from the compression of the piston heated the air behind the caseless cartridge enough to ignite the propellant, and this generated the bulk of the energy of firing. The V/L system was discontinued in 1969 after the BATF ruled that it was a firearm, not an airgun. Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (abbreviated ATF) is a specialized federal law enforcement and regulatory organization within the United

Several assault rifles have used caseless ammunition. An assault rifle is a Selective fire Rifle or Carbine (not to be confused with a semi-automatic only replica firing Ammunition with muzzle One of the better-known weapons of this type is the G11 made by Heckler & Koch. The Heckler & Koch G11 is a non-production prototype Bullpup Assault rifle developed during the 1970s and 1980s by the Gesellschaft für Hülsenlose Gewehrsysteme Heckler & Koch GmbH ( H&K) (pronounced ˈhɛklɐʔʊntˈkɔx is a German defense manufacturing company that produces various Although the rifle never entered full production, it went through a number of prototype stages as well as field testing before being put aside in favour of more conventional firearms.

The first commercial caseless rifle featuring electronic firing was the Voere VEC-91. Electronic firing refers to the use of an electric current to fire a cartridge, instead of a Percussion cap. The Voere VEC-91, made by Voere, is the first commercial sporting rifle to combine Caseless ammunition and Electronic firing.

In Fiction

• Several fictional weapons featured in the 1986 film Aliens and its related media utilize caseless ammunition, including the M41A pulse rifle and M56 Smart Gun. This article is about the film for the video games see Aliens (Square computer game and Aliens (arcade game.

• Another fictional user of caseless ammunition is the M7/Caseless Submachine Gun from Halo 2 and Halo 3. Halo 2 is a Science fiction First-person shooter Video game developed by Bungie Studios. Halo 3 is a First-person shooter Video game developed by Bungie exclusively for the Xbox 360.

• William Gibson also envisaged the widespread use of caseless ammunition is his Bridge trilogy, describing them as looking like "wax crayons" with a slightly "greasy feel"

• Iron Man's shoulder chain gun also uses caseless ammo. William Ford Gibson (born March 17 1948 is an American - Canadian writer who has been called the "noir prophet" of the Cyberpunk subgenre The Bridge trilogy is a series of novels by William Gibson, his second after the successful Sprawl trilogy.

See also

• Metal Storm
• Heckler & Koch G11
• Lightweight Small Arms Technologies