The reason I asked is it would seem time to move on from a cased design. Imagine the weight savings.
Not that I have a clue about the specifics.
I do remember reading about Metal Storm. What ever happened to that? Isn’t there something that can be done to leap a generation ahead in small arms?
MetalStorm has many different problems:
1. You have to take it back to the armory or the factory to reload it.
2. You cannot tailor your load to what you need.
3. The point of impact changes with every round fired.
4. A MetalStorm weapon is HEAVY.
The leap forward (which nobody seems to have been interested in) would have been the H&K G11: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_&_Koch_G11
Forgot to mention, the US Army *is* also quietly funding research/competition for a caseless weapon as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Small_Arms_Technologies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSAT_rifle
I don’t know if it is true or not but have read that the main drawback to caseless ammor is heat. The brass (or whatever it happens to be made of) cools the chamber when first inserted, then removes a lot of heat when it is fired and ejected.
the propellant in a caseless cartridge, simply adds heat and it builds so rapidly that the cartridges are capable of cooking off. A cooling system would add bulk and weight as well as something else to tear up.