![]() ![]() Other grenades launched parachute flares, colored ground smoke, and white, green, and red flare clusters. The M651E1 tear gas grenade carried a payload of CS gas. While the shaped charge warhead wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate tank armor it likely would have had utility against the armor of lighter vehicles such as the BTR-70 armored personnel carrier, BRDM-2 armored scout car and the flank armor of a BMP infantry fighting vehicle. The M433 High Explosive Dual Purpose round used a shaped charge warhead for use against vehicle armor but was also useful in the anti-personnel role. The M381, with an arming range of 3 meters, was useful for urban combat while the M406 armed after 14 meters. The M381 and M406 anti-personnel grenades were filled with high explosives and featured serrations in the body for fragmentation. A M203 grenadier could fire off his entire basic load of thirty-six rounds in less than three minutes, a devastating amount of explosive firepower for small infantry units.Ī number of 40-millimeter grenades were developed for U.S. It weighed half as much as the M79 while still allowing a grenadier the use of a M16A1 rifle. The M203 had the same range as the M79 and grenades had the same burst radius of approximately five yards. The M203 passed trials and was accepted by the Armed Services in 1969. #M203 grenade launcher trialSix hundred XM203s were ordered for trial use in Vietnam. A short-range weapon, it was often fired on a ballistic trajectory to hit targets at longer ranges. The M203 had a separate trigger that launched the grenade, and a AAI-designed sight that worked with the M16 front sight post to aim the weapon. Pulling the handguard back cocked the weapon, and it was now ready to fire. The grenade launcher was loaded by pushing the barrel forward and inserting a 40-millimeter grenade into the breech. The XM203-later M203-was a pump-action weapon that secured itself to a M16A1 rifle by way of a distinctive metal shroud that fit over the existing rifle handgun. The XM203 could also use M79 rounds, saving the military the hassle of developing and deploying new grenades. The XM203 handily won the competition based on “superior performance and lower cost” and was selected for adoption. The weapon, known as the XM203, went up against larger, more complicated designs by the Aero-Jet Corporation, the Aeronutronics Division of Philco-Ford, and again, Colt. ![]() AAI Corporation, formerly Aircraft Armaments Incorporated, had developed a 40-millimeter pump-action grenade launcher not designed for the M16 but which could be adapted for the role. The return of the M7 didn’t mean the service’s quest for an under-barrel grenade launcher was over, however. ![]()
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