Weapon Name- M41
Round Type- 10mm Caseless
Over-all length- 23.5 inches stock retracted, 29.5 inches stock extended
Barrel length- 12 inches
Weight- 4.8 Kilograms (10.5lb) fully loaded, 5.5 kilograms (12.1lb) fully loaded with grenades
Rate of Fire- 600 RPM
Feed Mechanism- Detachable Box Magazine
Round Capacity- 100, 95
Effective Range- 400 Meters
Range- 650 meters
Accuracy- 1.5-2 MOA
Accessories- Picanty Rail, Rail sight
Quick switch firing mechanism- Extra Trigger
Scope/Sights- Picanty Rail, built into rail sight
Muzzle Velocity- 690 m/s
Firing System- Chaingun
Miscellaneous/electronic information- Essentially an extremely heavy, extremely powerful close quarters combat weapon featuring a number of designs to make it as reliable and as powerful as possible.
Basic Information
The weapon uses a 12 inch polygonal barrel, with a right hand rifling twist rate at 381 mm (1 in 15 in), 5 grooves, Ø lands = 9.91mm, Ø grooves = 10.16mm, and land width = 4.47mm.
The barrel is made of a cobalt-alloy "flow formed" barrel; the barrel is made of an alloy that contains more than 50 percent cobalt. The barrel is roughly 13% heavier than standard steel barrels, but is more erosion and corrosion-resistant and is designed to retain high strength during long-term exposure to high temperatures. Cobalt alloys are frequently used in the aerospace industry, such as the hot-gas section of turbine engines. A proof of concept M240 7.62mm x 51mm NATO barrel, in practice, had 24,000 rounds test-fired through it, causing it to reach temperatures of 1,100 degrees, without failure. A steel barrel would have failed under such treatment.
The barrel itself, combined with polygonal barrel, in use with the M41 is extremely durable, and has a minimum 20,000 round barrel life, although it is possible to extend this or get use out of the rifle after the minimum is reached.
The weapon has a Delayed Blow-back mechanism, essentially an extremely Beefed up Mp5 mechanism (similar to the G3). While the Mp5 mechanism was capable of firing 10mm auto rounds reliably, the recoil was considered and cost of each round was too high to make it practical; this is compensated for due to the increased weight, recoil buffer, and muzzle break. Additionally, the rounds are mass produced and are cheaper due to a lack of brass.
The slide on the weapon is brass to deal with heat and is closed bolt for maximum reliability and accuracy.
The weapon is typically integrated with a stacked, 25mm grenade luancher, similar to the Mk. Mod 4 3GL, although the weapon is designed to be seamlessly integrated into the M41. The weapon possess the same fire and control system on the XM25, although with a slightly modified sight. The weapon is designed to be used with the XM25 airburst firing scope and platform, enabling the weapon to have an "integrated" airburst function. The electronic equipment is typically integrated, and can be used much in the same way that it was designed to be used on the XM29. This allows for grenades to be fired easier, as the firing controls are next to the trigger and pistol grip for ease of reach.
This sight fits closer to the weapon, has a rail sight on the top, and has interchangeable scopes, that as well that can be added to the initial 4x scope (such as thermal additions).
The weapon is made from composites and polymers similar to the P90, to both reduce the cost and weight as of the weapon, as well increase the durability. The weapon fires from a closed bolt for both maximum accuracy and reliability.
Each barrel possess a muzzle break designed after the surefire muzzlebreak. The muzzle break is intended to reduce the recoil of the weapon from an already relatively low level to being nearly absent, although some recoil is always present. As well, the design of the weapon and it's straight back recoil impulse, as well as the tighter, more steady grip on the weapon, combined with the impact gel recoil pad, makes the weapon very easy to use and relatively comfortable.
The magazine that is used is double column and U shaped, allowing for maximum storage capacity in terms of length as it folds back on to itself; otherwise, the magazine would be over a meter in length. Instead, it is 13.5 inches. The magazines require an enormous amount of pressure to load, and despite operating similarly to the surefire mechanism, is typically loaded by machine to avoid jams. The weapon is often loaded with only 95 rounds, to reduce the likelihood of jams.
Additionally, the weapon uses a FN Herstal round counter that is placed within the grip, and can be used in addition to a water proof liquid crystal display to present how many rounds are left in the magazine. Differentiating from each magazine to the next can be done through color coding, although the round's precoded round amount must be preprogrammed into the device.
The weapon fires a caseless 10mm 13.2 gram round at approximately 690 m/s, using high grade extremely powerful AA20 gunpowder mixed with RDX out of a 12 inch 381 mm (1 in 15 in), 5 grooved polygonal flow formed cobalt chrome barrel. It generates approximately 3142 joules.
The weapon has an effective range of approximately 400 meters, although due to the weight of the round can travel much farther than this and still retain it's energy. The rounds are generally High explosive armor piercing incendiary rounds, with roughly 4.2 grams of RDX, 4.1 grams for a 4.6mm penetrating depleted uranium projectile, 2.5 grams for zirconium dust and the rest of the projectile being lead steel, the operating mechanism (which is impact detonated and similar to a 40mm grenade) and copper for coating. They carry a molybdenum disulphide coating, which reduces friction in the barrel and can help improve velocity as well as the barrel life. Generally, each round is dimpled, as to provide an even more increase in velocity and to provide better aerodynamics.
The non explosive rounds, or "shredder" rounds, resemble black talon rounds made by Winchester.
