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M203 Grenade Launcher: The Marines Super Weapon?
The U.S. Marines are one of the best fighting forces ever. It makes sense that they would have pretty good weapons.
Here’s What You Need to Remember: One of the most powerful weapons available to U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps infantry is a grenade launcher designed to fit underneath the M16 rifle.
The M203 grenade launcher gave soldiers unprecedented grenade range in a compact, durable package. The weapon, introduced in the waning days of the Vietnam War, is only now being replaced by a new, similar one.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the U.S. Army overhauled its infantry weapon arsenal. Passed over for updates as the service prepared for nuclear warfare, it gradually became exceedingly obvious that the M-1 Garand and other small arms left over from World War II were painfully obsolete, especially in light of Communist Bloc armaments such as the AK-47.
One of the new weapons designed to boost infantry firepower was the M79 grenade launcher. A single shot weapon that resembled an oversized break-open shotgun, the M79 could lob a 40-millimeter high explosive grenade up to 350 meters, or about where U.S. weapons such as the new M-14 started to lose effectiveness. The new M79 effectively gave platoons and squads their own handheld artillery, capable of lobbing explosive rounds far in excess of traditional hand-thrown grenade range.
The M79 proved a valuable weapon during the Vietnam War and validated the concept of the grenade launcher. Still, there were shortcomings. While a useful weapon, a squad or platoon issued such a weapon would lose the grenadier as a rifleman, and the grenadier usually only carried an M1911A1 handgun as a sidearm. The M79 traded aimed fire for area fire.
The Department of Defense wanted to know why couldn’t a single soldier have a weapon system capable of both aimed and area fire? The M79 had a short and stubby barrel, and perhaps there was some way to mount a grenade launcher under the new M16 rifle, specifically in front of the magazine well and parallel to the rifle barrel. A weapon that used existing M79 rounds and attached to the M16 would be ideal.
Several designs were offered up for the Pentagon’s under-barrel grenade launcher, including prototypes by AAI Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Colt, and the government’s Springfield Armory. Colt’s design, the CGL-4, advanced to become the XM148 grenade launcher. While the XM148 accepted M79 rounds it also suffered from numerous problems, including complexity, cracks in metal parts, sighting issues, and too much force being needed to cock the weapon. After some trials in the jungles of Vietnam, the service recommended withdrawing the XM148 and bringing back the M79.
And as always have a chilled day from the Viking
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