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Recoilless Rifle mechanism and method of operation.
A recoilless gun or recoilless rifle (RCL) is a lightweight weapon that fires a heavier projectile than would be practical to fire from a recoiling weapon of comparable size. Technically, only devices that use a rifled barrel are recoilless rifles. Smoothbore variants are recoilless guns. This distinction is often lost, and both are often called recoilless rifles.

Normally used for anti-tank roles, the first effective system of this kind was developed during World War II by WIlliam Kroeger and Clarence Musser.

Recoilless rifles are capable of firing artillery-type shells at a range and velocity comparable to that of a normal light cannon, although they are typically used to fire larger shells at lower velocities and ranges. The near complete lack of recoil allows some versions to be shoulder-fired, but the majority are mounted on light tripods and are intended to be easily carried by a soldier. A few, such as the British 120mm L4 MoBAT and L6 Wombat could only practically be transported by jeep or truck, or mounted on an armoured personnel carrier.


The typical recoilless gun functions very much like a conventional gun. The projectile and propellant are supplied as a single round and loaded into the breech. When fired, however, instead of all the propellant blast following the projectile out the barrel, a large portion is allowed to escape to the rear, gaining a rearward directed momentum which is nearly equal to the forward momentum of the projectile. This balance of momenta ensure that the momentum of the rifle/projectile/exhaust gas system is conserved without imparting much momentum (recoil) to the rifle itself. Since recoil has been mostly removed, the heavy and complex gun carriage and recoil damping mechanism can be dispensed with. Despite the name, it is rare for the forces to completely balance, and real world recoilless rifles do recoil noticeably (with varying degrees of severity). Recoilless rifles are maintenance-intensive weapons, and if the breech and gas ports are old, damaged, plugged or poorly maintained, the recoil-damping effect can be reduced or lost altogether, leading to dangerously powerful recoil. Conversely, if a projectile becomes lodged in the barrel for any reason, the entire weapon will recoil forward, in the manner of a rocket.




The first recoilless gun was developed by Commander Cleland Davis of the US Navy, just prior to the First World War. His design connected two guns back to back, with the backwards-facing gun loaded with lead balls and grease of the same weight as the shell in the other gun. His idea was used experimentally by the Britishmarker as an anti-Zeppelin and anti-submarine weapon mounted on an Handley Page O/100 bomber and intended to be installed on other aircraft.

In the Soviet Union development of recoilless weapons ("Dinamo-Reaktivnaya Pushka" (DRP), roughly "dynamic reaction cannon") began in 1923. In the 1930s many different types of weapons were built and tested with calibers ranging from 37 mm to 305 mm. Some of the smaller examples were tested in aircraft (Grigorovich I-Z and Tupolev I-12) and through some limited production and service, but development was abandoned around 1938, possibly as a side effect of Great Purge. The best-known of these early recoilless rifles was the Model 1935 76 mm DRP designed by Leonid Kurchevsky. A small number of these mounted on trucks saw combat in the Winter War. Two were captured by the Finns and tested; one example was given to the Germans in 1940.

The first recoilless rifle to enter service in Germany was the 7.5 cm Leichtgeschütz 40 ("light gun" '40), a simple 75 mm smoothbore recoilless gun developed to give German airborne troops some useful artillery and anti-tank support that could be parachuted into battle. The 75 was found to be so useful during the invasion of Cretemarker that a larger 105 mm version was developed on the same basic pattern. Interestingly both of these weapons were loosely copied by the US Army, reversing the flow of technology that had occurred when the Germans copied the Bazooka. The US did have a development program and it is not clear to what extent the design was copied, as there were in fact differences. The Japanese had also developed a portable recoilless anti-tank rifle which they had reserved for the defense of anticipated invasion of the mainland. As it was, however, these weapons remained fairly rare during the war though the US versions of the 75 started becoming increasingly common in 1945.

During the Second World War the Swedishmarker company Bofors Carl Gustaf developed a small 20mm device, the 20mm m/42; the British expressed their interest in it, but by that point anti-tank rifles were already out of date.


By the time of the Korean War, recoilless rifles were found throughout the US forces. The "original" US recoilless rifles were the 57mm and 75mm, followed by a 105mm (the unsuccessful M27). Newer models replacing these were the 90 mm M67 and 106 mm M40 (which was actually 105mm caliber but designated otherwise to prevent confusion of ammunition with the earlier model). The Soviets likewise adopted recoilless technology in the 1950s, most commonly in calibers 73mm, 82mm, and 107mm.

The British, whose efforts were led by Denis Burney, inventor of the Wallbuster HESH round, also developed recoilless designs. Burney demonstrated the technique with a recoilless 4 gauge shotgun. His "Burney Gun" was developed to fire the Wallbuster shell against the Atlantic Wall defences, but was not required in the D-Day landings of 1944. He went on to produce many designs including a man-portable 3.45" (88 mm) recoilless rifle, the Ordnance, RCL, 3.45in pushed into experimental service in late 1945.

Two Burney guns were designed primarily as anti-tank weapons. One was 3.45in in calibre and could be fired off a man's shoulder or from a light tripod. The other was 3.7 inches in calibre, and carried on it light two-wheeled mounting. The 'Ordnance RCL. 3.45in MK 1' weighed 75lb (34kg), was 68.5in (1.74m) long, and fired an 11lb (5kg) wallbuster shell to 1,000 yards. No penetration figures were ever made public. but it is fairly certain that it could knock a 10lb slab off the back of 6in (150mm) of armour plate at any range it could hit. The 3.7 was a larger weapon weighing 222Ib (100kg); it was 112in (2.84m) long and fired a 22.2Ib (10kg) wallbuster to 2.000 yards; it is estimated that this could have dealt successfully with armour up to 10in (254mm) thick. Post-war work developed and deployed the BAT series of recoilless rifles, culminating in the 120mm L6 Wombat ("Weapon of Magnesium, Battalion Anti-tank"). This was too large to be transported by infantry, and was usually towed by jeep. The weapon was aimed via a spotting rifle, which fired much .50 Browning rounds whose trajectory matched that of the main weapon. Tracer rounds were fired first until hits were observed before firing off the main gun.

Lightweight SPG-9 73 mm and B10 82 mm heavy recoilless rifles are still in service in the Russian army in airborne units, and are found quite commonly around the world in the inventories of former Soviet client states, where they are usually used as an antitank guns.

During the 1960s and 1970s, wire-guided missiles began to supplant recoilless rifles in the anti-tank role. The recoilless rifle started to disappear from the military except in areas such as the Arctic where battery-powered Dragons and wire-guided TOWs would fail due to extreme low temperatures. The former 6th Light Infantry Division in Alaska used the M67 in its special weapons platoons. The last major use was the Ontos tank, which mounted six of the US 106 mm on a light (9 ton) tracked chassis first developed for use by the US Army airborne troops in 1950. However the Army considered them useless, and the Marines adopted the vehicle in a limited role. They used them to great effect as an anti-personnel fire support vehicle during the Vietnam War. The crews continued to report that the Ontos was a very effective fighting vehicle in this role, but the military brass continued to argue for heavier designs, and in 1970 the Ontos was removed from service and most were broken up. However the recoilless rifle found other roles, most notably in the India-Pakistan confrontation in Kashmir, where it was used against bunkers and as artillery in otherwise inhospitable terrain.

Today one of several remaining front-line recoilless rifles in the armies of industrialized Western nations is the famous Carl Gustav recoilless rifle, an 84 mm man-portable anti-tank weapon. First introduced in 1946, it is still in widespread use throughout the world today, and has even been re-introduced into the US Marine Corps as an anti-bunker weapon. The USmarker-made, M40 105 mm recoilless rifles, usually mounted on jeeps or similar small vehicles, are very common in the armies of many poorer countries, where they serve in the role of tank destroyers. The 84 (Carl Gustav recoilless rifle) can be used, along with 66 (aka M72 LAW) and LAW 80 for Mouse-holing whilst fighting in built-up areas (FIBUA). This is where impromptu "doors" are added to a building to gain entry, hopefully avoiding the prepared defences of the occupiers.

Deployed by the United States in the 1960s, the M-388 Davy Crockett used a recoilless rifle to launch a tactical nuclear warhead.

Older 75mm weapons are still used by the U.S. National Park Service as a system for avalanche control.

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