U.S. Military Are Getting A New 40 mm Laser Guided Grenade Round

Marine Times: Marine and Army squads could get this new 40 mm laser guided grenade round

Marines and soldiers will no longer need to use “Kentucky windage” to put 40 mm grenades on target if the two branches field Raytheon’s laser guided Pike munition.

The new 40 mm round is guided by semi-active laser designators, meaning the munition will home in on a target that has been lased and destroy it with precision, according to Townsend Blanchard, a senior manager with Raytheon’s land warfare systems.

The Pike is an anti-personnel and anti-light skinned vehicle precision munition that boasts an extended range of nearly 2 km — far surpassing the roughly 300–400 meter range of standard unguided 40 mm grenades, Blanchard told Marine Corps Times. The round also has counter-defilade capabilities.

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Update: This new laser-guided missile could make the Army's grenade launcher more deadly (Business Insider/We Are The Mighty)

WNU Editor: It's about time.

The U.S. Army Designs A New Hand Grenade

A soldier tosses a training grenade at Fort Harrison, Montana. U.S. Army Reserve photo

Robert Beckhusen, War Is Boring: The U.S. Army Designs a New Hand Grenade After More Than 40 Years

ET-MP is a frag-concussion twofer

Hand grenades are an ancient weapon but hardly irrelevant. There are few devices as brutally effective at killing inside enclosed spaces, such as caves or rooms, than a device such as the U.S. Army’s M67 fragmentation grenade.

The M67 has been around for awhile, being first introduced into service in 1968. And mechanically, it’s little different from the grenades American soldiers lobbed into bunkers during the World Wars. It’s a relic, one still quite practical and useful, that has survived like the M2 Browning machine gun into the 21st century.

But the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal is working on a replacement, which if introduced into service, will amount to the first new lethal American grenade since Vietnam. And there’s an interesting design choice behind it.

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More News On The U.S. Army Designing A new Hand Grenade

The Next Generation Grenade Has Two Deadly Modes -- Task & Purpose
New US multipurpose enhanced hand grenade -- Next Big Future
New Hand Grenade Design For U.S. Army In The Works -- Popular Science
US Army developing first new hand grenade in 40 years -- New Atlas

The U.S. Army Is Building A Better Grenade

This graphic was released by the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal to illustrate how a grenade in development would work. (U.S. Army image)

This Future Army Grenade Could Kill Enemies Hiding Behind Walls -- Washington Post

When U.S. combat troops are caught in a firefight, one of the quickest ways for them to turn the tide in their favor is to use grenades. The 40mm rounds can be fired from a launcher attached to a rifle, landing on enemies a few hundred meters away. But they have limitations, especially when enemy fighters take cover behind a wall or other obstacle.

The U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey is working on a new round to address that. “Small Arms Grenade Munitions” would double the lethality of the grenades against enemies who are “in defilade,” meaning they are using obstacles or barriers to shield themselves from harm, Army officials say.

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My Comment: There is always room for improvement.

Israel Develops A Bullet Proof Grenade

New grenade developed by IDF won't explode when hit by a bullet. Photo credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

IDF Develops Innovative Bullet-Proof Grenade -- Israel Hayom

The first-of-its-kind grenade was developed following an incident on the Gaza border in March 2010 in which two IDF soldiers were killed when a bullet set off one of their grenades • "There is no grenade like this anywhere else in the world," says IDF officer.

The Israel Defense Forces have developed a first-of-its-kind grenade that doesn't explode when struck by a bullet.

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Update #1: Israel Military Industries develops bullet, shrapnel and fire proof grenade -- Washington Post/AP
Update #2: Israel Military Industries (IMI) Develops Bulletproof/Bullet-Resistant Grenade (Defensive Grenade?) for IDF -- Defense Review