After 20 years of looking for a brand new grenade launcher, the U.S. Military seems to be zeroing in on a alternative.
The Military is searching for prototypes for the Precision Grenadier System, which is able to change the M203 and M320 grenade launchers.
In a nod to trendy battlefield situations, the PGS will incorporate drone-killing tech along with providing troops the aptitude to have interaction targets behind defilade resembling partitions.
The PGS “will likely be a man-portable, goal engagement system that permits the squad to organically incapacitate enemy personnel targets in defilade, in shut quarters battle and unmanned aerial techniques with fast and exact fireplace,” in response to the Military solicitation, which is due by Could 11.
The solicitation requires prototype submissions that embody 16 weapons, fireplace controls techniques and round 25,000 rounds of ammunition, with a mixture of counter-defilade, counter-drone, shut quarter battle and coaching rounds.
The Military plans to award two Different Transaction Agreements for prototypes. The final word aim is to problem two grenade launchers per rifle squad.
The hunt for a next-generation grenade goes again to the 2008 Small Arms Capabilities-Primarily based Evaluation, which examined fight classes from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Among the many findings was that the Military wanted a grenade launcher that may hit targets in defilade out to 500 meters. The present 40mm M203, and its successor the M320, have an efficient vary of 350 meters.
“Warfighters lack the power to realize desired accuracy and incapacitating results towards personnel targets in defilade [protected from hostile ground observation and flat projecting fire by an obstacle, such as a wall or hill], at ranges out to 500 meters,” the small-arms examine famous.
For a time, the answer seemed to be the 25mm XM25 “Punisher.” However that program was canceled in 2018 amid value and efficiency considerations, leaving troops to depend on the older grenade launchers firing airburst rounds, in addition to the Carl Gustaf 84mm recoilless rifle.
An RFI for the Precision Grenadier System in 2020 listed a wide range of desired capabilities. Particularly, it sought a breaching functionality able to blasting “strong wooden doorways 1.5 inches thick, home windows, and gates, at 50 meters.”
It additionally requested for an armor-piercing spherical “able to a hitting a calmly armored car out to a minimal engagement distance to 500 meters day or evening with an armor penetration of between 1.0 to 2.0 inches at 90 levels rolled homogenous armor.”
The 2026 solicitation doesn’t point out breaching or anti-armor capabilities. It does name for hitting “enemy combatants, their private gear, and thin-skinned targets in defilade positions, whereas limiting collateral harm.”
Michael Peck is a correspondent for Protection Information and a columnist for the Middle for European Coverage Evaluation. He holds an M.A. in political science from Rutgers College. Discover him on X at @Mipeck1. His e mail is mikedefense1@gmail.com.
