Infantryman 2000 assault rifle

[Cutaway]

Does anyone here know of the 'Infantryman 2000' concept from the 1980s?. It was a concept by Scicon ltd, a UK company developing British Army equipment that would be used in 2000. However, it appears that an Assault Rifle was also developed for the programme or most likley a mockup. If anyone here finds more images of this weapon, post here.

 

[cluttonfred]

A 30-second Google search for "Scicon Infantryman 2000" turns up this blog post with a PopSci article and not one but two Jane's covers:

http://augfc.tumblr.com/post/132042234505/infantryman-2000-in-1984-scicon-services-ltd

 

[Grey Havoc]

If I remember correctly, the rifle was intended to fire 4.7mm caseless rounds, and had an integrated 10mm (some sources claim 30mm) grenade launcher able to fire a variety of munitions. There are some reports two functioning prototypes were completed apart from the PR & ergonomic (handling) mock-ups.

 

[Cutaway]

Here is another image:

 

[Tony Williams]

If I remember correctly, the rifle was intended to fire 4.7mm caseless rounds, and had an integrated 10mm (some sources claim 30mm) grenade launcher able to fire a variety of munitions. There are some reports two functioning prototypes were completed apart from the PR & ergonomic (handling) mock-ups.

I'd not heard about this one. In 1984 the Heckler & Koch G11 firing caseless 4.7mm ammo was the Coming Thing, with Germany and several other European NATO countries expected to choose it rather than the NATO 5.56mm. However, a combination of technical difficulties (still not resolved in the LSAT programme) and budget cuts due to the end of the Cold War killed it off. So I presume this device was intended to fire the same ammo, and it may simply have been a repackaged G11.

Looking at the photos (and applying common sense) the grenade round was clearly of something like 30mm calibre rather than 10mm. There was an earlier experimental US self-loading GL of this calibre, but that may have been coincidental.

 

[REMOV]

There are some reports two functioning prototypes were completed apart from the PR & ergonomic (handling) mock-ups.

I doubt that any prototype ever existed. The design itself doesn't seem to be working as a gun, think about recoil. Just a mockup to looks like a s-f movie gun ;-)