The US Army Is Getting a New Hand Grenade

For the primary time in almost six many years, the US Military is getting a brand new deadly hand grenade.

The Military cleared the brand new M111 Offensive Hand Grenade for full manufacturing this week. The brand new blast overpressure grenade is changing the now-obsolete MK3A2 grenades, which have been first adopted by the army in 1968, across the identical time because the M67 fragmentation grenade.

The Capabilities Program Government Ammunition and Energetics, along with US Military Fight Capabilities Improvement Command Armaments Middle at Picatinny Arsenal, developed the brand new hand grenade, the primary for the Military since Vietnam.

The M111 is fabricated from plastic that’s consumed throughout detonation. The older MK3A2 blast/concussion grenades, then again, have been produced from asbestos, a carcinogenic substance that compelled the service to place restrictions on the usage of these grenades. The previous M67 grenades are nonetheless in use.

The worth of getting a blast overpressure grenade is that it decreases the chance of unintentional fratricide, the unintentional killing of 1’s personal troops at warfare, throughout close-quarters fight, however the limitations on the usage of the MK3A2 meant troopers solely had the fragmentation M67 accessible to them in fight.

The M67 grenade propels steel fragments outward in all instructions when it explodes. In tight indoor areas like rooms or hallways, these fragments can bounce off partitions or be blocked by furnishings, decreasing effectiveness and probably hurting pleasant troops.

The M111 grenade, much like the MK3A2, works in another way, as a substitute producing a strong blast and strain wave much less prone to be stopped by partitions or obstacles, making it more practical inside buildings and different confined areas.

“One of many key classes realized from the door-to-door city preventing in Iraq was the M67 grenade wasn’t all the time the precise device for the job. The chance of fratricide on the opposite aspect of the wall was too excessive,” mentioned Col. Vince Morris, the Military mission supervisor for shut fight techniques, in a service press assertion.

Utilizing blast overpressure as a substitute, “can clear a room of enemy combatants rapidly leaving nowhere to cover whereas guaranteeing the protection of pleasant forces,” he mentioned.

Troopers can nonetheless use the M67 fragmentation hand grenade in open terrain, the assertion mentioned, however ought to depend on the newer model for “enclosed and restricted terrain.”

Blast overpressure weapons will be dangerous for troops utilizing them, and the US army has been grappling with the consequences of those techniques. Service members, because of their steady work with artillery, breaching prices, and different heavy weaponry, have suffered traumatic mind accidents, which might include debilitating results.

The Military, together with different providers, has sought to mitigate these dangers.