![]() On impact, the grenade can kill anyone within a radius of five metres (16 ft), and wound them within a radius of 15 metres (49 ft). The primary ammunition for it is the high-explosive dual-purpose M430 grenade. The Mk 19A is a man-portable crew-served weapon that can fire from a tripod-mounted position or from a vehicle mount, with the latter being the preferred method, as the weapon alone weighs 77.6 pounds (35.2 kg). For night operation, a picatinny rail quadrant sight can be added for thermal and night vision optics. Though the Mk 19 has a flash suppressor, it serves only to save the eyesight of its operator, not concealing the weapon's position. The nearest safe distance to launch the grenade is 310 meters in training and 75 meters in combat. The Mk 19 can launch its grenade at a maximum distance of 2,212 meters (2,419 yd), though its effective range to a point target is about 1,500 meters (1,600 yd), since the large rear leaf sight is only graduated as far. The weapon operates on the blowback principle, which uses the chamber pressure from each fired round to load and re-cock the weapon. It fires 40 mm grenades at a cyclic rate of 325 to 375 rounds per minute, giving a practical rate of fire of 60 rounds per minute (rapid) and 40 rounds per minute (sustained). The Mk 19 is a belt-fed, blowback-operated, air-cooled, crew-served, fully-automatic weapon that is designed not to cook off. Marine fires a Mk 19 40 mm grenade launcher in Quantico, Virginia in September 2000. This piece first appeared last year and is being republished due to reader interest.A U.S. ![]() and Russian security, European defense issues, and German politics and culture. He holds a Master of Public Policy and covers U.S. Special Operations Command Units.Ĭaleb Larson is a Defense Writer with The National Interest. ![]() Though used primarily by the United States military, the Mk 47 has not seen widespread use and is in service mostly with U.S. General Dynamics’ Mk 47 uses a Lightweight Video Sight that allows operators to engage targets during the day, and at night when used in tandem with a thermal imaging sight. ![]() Incredibly, the large grenade launcher weighs just under forty pounds, or about eighteen kilos, making the weapon system much easier for grunts to hump around. The grenade launcher is chambered in the same 40mm grenade ammunition as the previous Mk 19, though it can also fire airburst ammunition, useful against entrenched positions, or targets behind walls.īy far the biggest benefit the Mk 47 offers over the Mk 19 is its significantly lower weight. In order to remedy the Mk 19’s high weight, General Dynamics developed the Mk 47. This odd-looking launcher used a twelve-round canister, and appeared to use parts of the single-shot M79 grenade launcher as well as the M1919 machine-gun.Īll platforms aside, there is now something better that you may have never heard of: the Mk 47. The Mk 18 was often used in fixed positions during Vietnam, like bases, or on vehicle mounts.Īlong with the Mk 18, an odd hybrid machine gun grenade launcher was built and experimented with, the XM174. The design was relatively light-weight, though firing with a hand-powered crank rather than a butterfly-style trigger reduced the weapon’s accuracy. ![]()
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