Mk.19, firing

As “Britain’s GMG Order Illustrates 2 Key Trends” discusses, 40mm grenades are a potent battlefield weapon.

Many of the current conflicts are essentially infantry battles, which makes firepower overmatch a critical goal. Whether fired singly from an M203 rifle mount, used in a remote-control vehicle system like CROWS, or as an infantry platoon’s crew-served heavy weapon, the 40mm grenade brings considerable firepower to the infantry fight. It’s also lethal against unarmored or lightly armored vehicles. Some companies are even offering shotgun-style repeating launchers, like Milkor’s MG-32 – or even weapons that can be fired around corners!

As FY 2008 ticked down to a close, the US military issued over $120 million worth of contracts for its staple 40mm weapon – the Mk19 grenade machine gun. It also got set to begin testing an interesting addition to infantry firepower – a programmable 25mm air bust weapon that offers comparable lethality, but can be carried by a single soldier…

Simon/GREM

You’re a soldier, approaching a building that contain armed enemies. As the squad slips from point to point, leapfrogging to offer each other cover, the question arises: who wants to be the designated bad boy who gets to kick down the door and hope they aren’t greeted by a hail of bullets from the other side? As the saying goes: Noooobody!

The Israelis thought about this problem, and decided to let Simon do it. Simon is RAFAEL’s bullet-trap grenade with a stand-off rod, and a precisely shaped 120mm warhead. Just attach the standoff
rod at the front, slide the 1.5 pound grenade’s tail over the muzzle of your rifle, take aim from between 10-36 yards/ 9-33 meters away, and pull the trigger. The rod and specially shaped warhead ensure that the grenade’s shock wave blast blows the door right in, while creating enough noise and chaos to give the squad a few precious seconds to get inside and take the offensive.

Sending Simon…

“Let Simon do it” became popular enough to earn RAFAEL’s grenade wide Israeli use, a partnership with General Dynamics ATP, a video on US Army PEO Soldier’s web site, and a 2005 award from the US Army for the M100 GREM as one of the year’s top 10 military inventions. On Nov 4/07, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. announced another milestone: a $52 million contract from the US Army for the Simon (GREM) door breaching rifle grenade.

Hellfire II

On Oct 29/07, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced [PDF] Israel’s formal request for a wide variety of missiles and ammunition. Previous orders have outfitted its air force for air-air and air-ground combat. While many of this order’s missiles are likely to find themselves aboard Israeli helicopters, this is not exclusively true, and the overall picture is one of rebuilding ammunition stocks for the ground forces and their supporting arms.

The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $1.329 billion. Specific items requested include:

Practice makes perfect

The grenade machine gun was invented to provide area-effect infantry firepower that could decimate enemy infantry with fragmentation bursts from multiple 40mm grenades. The Saco/GD Mk19 is one of the world’s most common GMGs, and events in Afghanistan et. al. are making these weapons very popular. No weapon can be effective without proper training, however – which leads to the question of how one does live training involving a GMG? Glad you asked…

Rheinmetall Waffe Munition GmbH, doing business as Niederlassung NICO Trittau in Trittau, Germany, just received $39 million for delivery order #0003 under a previously awarded firm-fixed indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract (M67854-06-D-1027) for the production of 1,496,000 40mm MK281 Mod 0 Practice Cartridges, plus accompanying non-recurring costs. The MK 281 is a training cartridge consisting of 32 rounds linked together in a belt for use in the Mk19 Grenade Machine Gun. Upon impact with the ground, the cartridges expel a non-toxic orange dye that is visible up to a minimum of 1,200 meters in normal daylight conditions, and a chemiluminescent insert that is visible up to 500 meters in darkness (especially with night vision goggles).

That ought to remove the old “I hit you… Did not… Did too….” discussions we all remember so well. Work will be performed Trittau, Germany, is work is expected to be completed by September 2008. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Program Manager for Ammunition in Quantico, VA issued the contract.

Mk.19 40mm GMG/AGL

The US Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division in Crane, IN has awarded NAMMO Raufoss AS (Medium & Large Caliber Division) in Raufoss, Norway an $8.45 million firm-fixed-price contract for 39,776 rounds of MK 285 40mm programmable pre-fragmented, high explosive (PPHE) ammunition. The NAMMO AS 40mm PPHE cartridge utilizes an electronically programmable time fuze (Mk438), which has both point detonating and self-destruct functions. The programming allows the round to be fired from an automatic grenade launcher and detonate to hit targets hidden behind cover, on rooftops, behind corners, inside buildings or in trenches, etc. Work will be performed in Raufoss, Norway, and is expected to be complete by November 2007. The contract was not competitively procured (N00164-06-C-4879).

NAMMO was recently acquired by Patria Oyj of Finland, though it also remains partly owned by the Norwegian government. In addition to 40mm grenades, the firm also makes specialty sniper ammunition for US forces.

Technical innovation is present in all militaries, but America’s combination of do-it-yourself types, large defense budgets, and a gadget-happy national character makes it particularly fertile ground. Now add a global war and its challenges, plus a defense sector with a strong small business component made up of ex-military types. The overall innovation transmission belt may not be as tight or as effective as Israel’s or Singapore’s, but the scale of the US defense establishment more than compensates in terms of the sheer number produced.

Adoption, of course, is another matter. One way to improve it is to raise the profile of sucessful innovations through awards. Along those lines, the US Army recently recognized some special innovators by naming its “Top 10 inventions of 2005,” a list that should be of interest to many militaries around the world.

It includes…

Mk19: Practice makes perfect…

The U.S. Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, IL recently issued a series of firm-fixed-price contracts for work related to 40mm grenade production. This is a popular ammunition choice used in everything from one-shot M203 launchers slung under infantry rifles, to deadly multiple-shot launchers like Milkor’s M-32, infantry/ light vehicle heavy weapons like the Mk 19 GMG, and even Cornershot’s innovative “round the corner” firing technology.

Recent contracts have totalled over $187.7 million, and included:

Metal Storm on Talon UGV

If you know a serious weapons geek, odds are you’ve heard the name “Metal Storm.” This Australian/US firm’s fully loaded barrel tubes are essentially serviceable weapons, without the traditional ammunition feed or ejection system, breech opening or any other moving parts. The technology uses the concept of numerous projectiles stacked in a barrel, in which each projectile has its own propellant load. The leading propellant can be electronically ignited to fire the projectile, without the resulting high pressure and temperature causing unplanned blow-by ignition of the following propellant load, and without collapse of the projectile column in the barrel. Metal Storm barrels can be effectively grouped in multiple configurations to meet a diversity of applications, are extremely reliable due to their lack of moving parts, and are capable of local or remote operation through a computerized fire control system.

Now the firm has been awarded a two year Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract worth approximately A$ 975,000 from the US Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) for the design, prototyping and demonstration of Metal Storm less-than-lethal munitions.

XM307

General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products Inc. of Burlington, VT received a $6 million modification to a cost-plus-award-fee contract for a remotely operated variant of the XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon System. Remote operation systems like the Rafael OWS, Thales SWARM, and the Recon/Optical CROWS allow a weapon to be sighted, rotated, and fired from inside a vehicle, trading off reduced situational awareness for less crew exposure to hostile fire.

The lightweight XM307 is being developed by General Dynamics under a 2004 contract worth up to $95 million through December 2007. It will replace the M2 .50 cal “Ma Deuce” machine gun, which has been in service since the 1920s. Here in the 21st century, the USA has had to ramp up .50 cal ammunition production because “Ma Deuce” remains one of the most requested weapons in the Iraqi theater of war. Truly a hard act to follow – but the future M307/ M312 has a few new tricks up its gun sleeve.

Shaw Environmental Inc. in Stoughton, MA received a $23 million firm-fixed-price contract for the design, purchase, and installation of equipment to modernize the white phosphorous facility at Pine Bluff Arsenal, AR. White phosphorous is an extremely effective smoke generator, especially for small size devices like grenades or mortars. It also has some uses as an incendiary, and its combustability in warm weather or upon handling can make it dangerous.

According to GlobalSecurity.org, Pine Bluff’s original mission was as a manufacturing center for magnesium and thermite munitions…