Heckler & Koch G11/Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR)

Research and development began on the G11 caseless ammunition rifle almost twenty-five years ago. Final troop and technical tests by the West German Army started in 1988. Evaluated directly against the famous G3 rifle used since 1959 by West German Forces, the early G11 prototypes were little more than laboratory test weapons.

The first version of the G11 used a single 50-round magazine. The capacity and length of the magazine was reduced to 45 rounds in later models. The G11 had a non-detachable (1:1x) optical sight fitted within the carrying handle of the weapon. The sighting system was devised for realistic combat ranges up to 300 meters and used a simple "ring" reticle for fast and simple target engagement. Back-up iron sights were absent, as the designers were confident of the robust design and construction of the optics.

Throughout 1988 and 1989 the West German Army ran fifteen of these rifles through a gruelling series of tests, firing over 40,000 rounds of ammunition. Troops from infantry, armored, parachute, and reconnaissance units evaluated the G11 as a replacement for the G3 rifle while technicians at the German Ordnance Center at Aachen performed tests on both the weapon and the ammunition. Rifles were tested for accuracy, endurance, reliability, and safety. The rifles were fired after being frozen, baked, immersed in salt water, and buried in mud baths to determine their resistance to the most extreme environmental conditions imaginable. Ammunition was subjected to heat, solvents, moisture, and impact to ensure that it was robust enough for military use. In fact, the testing of the ammunition was taken to such extremes, a full box of cartridges was dropped from an aircraft in flight.