South Korea’s home-grown K11 airburst assault rifle was ahead of the curve. Although the U.S. is having great success with their XM25, no other fighting force committed itself to a standard issue airburst rifle. Dual caliber, no less. On paper, the K11 is all that: a 20mm grenade launcher sitting atop a 5.56 rifle barrel. As any “early adopter” or experienced combat vet will tell you, sometimes it’s better to let someone else go on-point. The good folks at bernama.com report that 15 of the 39 K11’s deployed in the field are having some shock and vibration “issues.” “Problems with the fire control system caused some rifles to miss targets, according to the Defense Acquisition Agency . . . After modifying the shape of the fire control system by June and conducting field tests in October, we will resume deploying the K11 from around November,” an official promised. Good luck with that.
If the Swedish ADM 401 is the “meat grinder,” would that make the South Korean K11 the “kimchee maker?” ‘Cause it would pretty much shred your cabbage.