Recoilless technologies

Like Metal Storm before it, Australian company Recoilless Technologies International believes it has made a highly significant breakthrough in ballistics technology.
An Australian company believes it has developed the ballistics equivalent of the Philosopher's Stone, the ability to eliminate recoil and thus reduce the mass of any given weapon without any impact on range and accuracy.

Should the technology work, the ramifications are extraordinary for ballistic weapons of all sizes, with a potential spin-off to industrial applications in civil engineering, construction, mining and excavation.

Aptly-named Recoilless Technologies is basically challenging the effect of Newton's Third Law of Motion, which states "All forces occur in pairs, and these two forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction".

The core of the technology involves dividing a weapon such as a pistol into two significant sections, with the slide or breech block and the cartridge chamber (in a pistol, normally integral in the barrel) forming the rear section, and the barrel forming the front section.

Once firing is initiated, the space created between the cartridge chamber and barrel is filled with rapidly expanding gas from the ignited cartridge propellant. This action causes the front and rear sections to simultaneously move in opposing directions at extremely high speed, thereby negating any recoil force.

As the mechanism continues to open, the ejector strikes the cartridge, ejecting the spent case. After the projectile has left the barrel, the mechanism under spring tension returns to its orginal position ready to repeat firing.

The technology has been granted patents in nearly 20 countries, including the US in 2004, and applications are pending in more than 40 other countries.

Recoilless Technologies International (RTI) was formed in 2000 by the developer and owner of the technology, RTI chairman Richard Giza, and became a public unlisted company in 2003. Based in Keysborough, Victoria, RTI is currently seeking A$5 million via new equity to refine and commercialise the technology.

An earlier capital raising from 85 investors, many of whom were family and friends of the directors, led to concerns by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) that this was done without the disclosure required under the fundraising provisions of the Corporations Act. Under an enforceable undertaking accepted by ASIC, the investors were offered shares or a full reimbursement of their funds.

Mr Giza, an engineer, emigrated to Australia from Poland in the 1980s but has been working on a practical solution to ballistic recoil for more than three decades.

Early tests firing a .22 magnum cartridge from an adaptation of the framework of a .45 semi-automatic pistol showed a substantial anti-recoil force. The company points out that this was significant, given that the intention of the initial prototype was not to effectively reduce recoil but only to confirm the patent specifications and establish the internal spread of major components which form the basis of the technology.

Zero recoil was achieved in 2001 using a prototype weapon based on a Mauser 98 bolt-action rifle firing a standard NATO 7.62mm round. The prototype was suspended in an open frame using four free-hanging steel cables and was fired by a remotely-operated cable trigger system. Futher test firings with this prototype demonstrated the ability to flexibly control recoil forces.

Last August a Beta prototype again based on the Mauser 98 and designed to incorporate a bottom mounting rail and a laser sight on a removable
The testing methodology simulated the different platfforms in which gun systems may be mounted or held.

According to BMT, a member of the National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia, the measurements recorded during rigid and free-floating weight conditions "showed a significant reduction in recoil and a minor decrease in projectile velocity under both test conditions....

"The free-floating weight tests produced some individual measurements of zero recoil with a similar decrease in projectile velocity as experienced under the rigid test conditions".

Professor Ross Babbage, one of Australia's leading strategic analysts, a one-time senior executive of ADI and a former Assistant Secretary of Defence, was initially a sceptic but is now a non-executive director of RTI.

"I asked a lot of pointed questions and then I saw a demonstration. When the anti-recoil mechanism is engaged the weapon hardly moves when fired. The mechanism can even be tweaked to provide negative recoil - the weapon moves forwards rather than back".

Professor Babbage said the Defence Science and Technology Organisation saw a demonstration late last year and is keen to be involved in development of the technology. Exploratory talks are also taking place with major weapons manufacturers with the intention of seeking what he described as "a major international deal".

Professor Babbage believes the downstream ramifications from what he describes as "possibly the most important defence breakthrough in Australia" are breathtaking - 155mm guns able to be mounted on APC-sized armoured vehicles, and 5inch naval guns on patrol craft.

While he believed it would be possible for the technology, when fully refined, to be retrofitted to weapons, it would clearly be cheaper for it to be incorporated into new-build programs.

By Julian Kerr, Sydney