They didn't try to recoup by using it on anything else

I mean, why dump a fuckton of money when there's no threat of invasion?

Demobilization sucks

The G11, as cool as it is, wasn't necessary and neither was it's ammo. History has proven as much

HK is a business, and to stay in business, they need to make money

It's like a pharma company researching a med, dumping billions in to R&D, and not even bothering to seel it as a generic brand to recoup the cost.

although they seem to be bad at doing so...

Exactly

I mean, I get what you mean, but using "It's not necessary" as an argument is not something I agree on. Why innovate in the first place?

they are so successful, they put themselves out of business

need drives innovation

You guys are like "der wuz no need" and I fucking get that, but my point is they have this thing, which is very useful, and they've never tried to recoup the cost of inventing it

The round itself is spectacular

as an arms company now, you either cater to the military first or the civilian shooting sports

It's small, light, and mimics 5.56 NATO

I can;'t imagine it would be difficult to make a more conventional firearm that uses 4.73

right, but the logistics and cost for anyone to replace all conventional small arms with it is enormous

Nobody said replace

great, now you're the french

I'm talking some shit like an AR-15 kit for 4.73 so you can meme it up

Oof

IIRC, the ammo is also actually really fragile and even minor imperfections could ruin the entire round

^

Calling someone the french is a low blow

That was pre-modification Squid

lol

HK designed an entirely new explosive just for 4.73

I mean that in a "we have 8 different calibers and rifles because we kept everything from a century ago"

french

It set hard, had a stupidly high heat tolerance, and was difficult to break.

Oh no, I get it, I still find it funny

caseless is being developed right now with polymer

Like post-redesign the 4.73 round was actually harder to set off than conventional brass

less worry about the HK style of caseless

Polymer semi-caseless has been done for almost 40 years now

"done"

MAC, do you know how NATO 120mm tank shells work?

yes, it's nitrocellulose with a baseplate

It's a semi-caseless polymer round with a metal abseplate.

I'm saying for small arms

It's the same difference, you're just caught up in scale.