There are electronic triggers, but they are designed with mechanical elements that either slow down their operation (a hydraulic piston slowly depresses the trigger) or have some linkage still linked to the user's finger (I'd guess that means the sear is electric, but the disconnector-reset is still done by your finger moving). I'm sure both are expensive at any rate.
The benefits make sense at least on a battlefield, although I can't see how it would necessarily benefit us peasants.
Until we invent a firing chamber that doesn't absorb heat from the rounds fired, caseless actually makes
less sense on the battlefield, and more sense in bolt-rifles. The G11 would cook off after only a small number of rounds (quickly attainable given it's 3000rpm cycle speed). Not to mention that a pile of caseless will always be a
hell of a lot more dangerous to have around than flash-proof cases.
I'm thinking more and more it'll be optics. We've revolutionized iron sights with the new dot setups (reflex and red dot), I think auto-compensating/calculating scopes are next. That and cheap night vision (how old is
that technology at this point?)
Here's a nifty concept I'll just "throw out there" to the wolves amongst us: Modular receiver that splits vertically at the magwell and ejection port instead of into an upper/lower. Would allow for any length magazine and cartridge to be used with a barrel/front-er swap, limited only by the width of the magwell and ejection ports. Anyone think this would go over like a led zeppelin?
TCB