The infantry's 40 mm punch: new designs and ammunition types are extending the capabilities of the shoulder-fired 40-mm grenade launcher. With lightweight alloys, composite materials and new warhead technologies these weapons are a far cry from their 1950s ancestors.

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Infantry: weapons

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The infantry's 40 mm punch: new designs and ammunition types are extending the capabilities of the shoulder-fired 40-mm grenade launcher. With lightweight alloys, composite materials and new warhead technologies these weapons are a far cry from their 1950s ancestors.

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The origin of the 40-mm grenade launcher can be traced back to 1951 when the US Army began its search for an individual weapon that could deliver a high-explosive payload in the gap between the maximum range of a hand grenade, possibly 30 metres thrown, and the 400-metre minimum range of its light mortars. Picatinny Arsenal developed a 40 x 46 mm low-velocity cartridge that was classified as the M406 40-mm high-explosive fragmentation grenade, and in 1961 the army fielded the first production examples of the M79 grenade launcher. This was a single-shot, break-open weapon with a rifled barrel and an adjustable ladder-type rear sight graduated in 25-metre increments from 75 to 375 metres. The major drawback with the M79 was that the grenadier had to carry a 'backup' weapon such as a pistol or a rifle. ...

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