Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!caen!news.cs.indiana.edu!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: al76188@tut.fi (Lahtinen Antti Jussi) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Small Arms Message-ID: <1991Mar6.042720.25527@cbnews.att.com> Date: 6 Mar 91 04:27:20 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (william.b.thacker) Organization: Tampere University of Technology Lines: 46 Approved: military@att.att.com From: al76188@tut.fi (Lahtinen Antti Jussi) > I've noticed a few of the men in every squad are equiped with a grenade > laucher mounted under the barrel of their M16. That grenade launcher is M203 or M203Pi. M203 is attached under the barrel, and M203Pi (Product Improved) has an optional plastic stock and can also be used as a separete weapon. M203 weights roughly 1.4 kg and fires 40 mm grenades. I am not sure about the trajectory of the grenade, but it should be flat enough to fire streigth up to 100 m. Indirect range should be about 400 m. The individual grenades weight about 0.3 kg each and there is at least HE, HEDP and smoke rounds available. Grenade launcher have been around since Vietnam, the first was M79 Blooper. M203 is not the only GL around. In Germany they use H&K 69 launcher that uses the same ammunition as M203. Soviet army uses a muzzle-loading GL, but it has shorter range than M203. Grenade launchers combine the qualities of a hand grenade and rocket launcher. It is like a hand grenade that can be launched by pressing a trigger and explodes on contact. >>British infantry... They were carrying a very modern looking assault rifle >>that I've never seen before. It was sand colored and had the magazine (and >>I assume the firing mechanism) BEHIND the pistol grip. This rifle is IW (Infantry Weapon). It has the bulpup configuration in which the firing mechanism is located behand pistol grip (or actually, the pistol grip is relocated in front of the magazine and the butt is deleted). This configuration makes the weapon shorter and easier to handle. The total lenght of a bulpup rifle is the lenght of the original rifle minus the stock. IW has been standard issue for couple of years now. There is a support weapon version of IW available, the LSW (Light Suppert Weapon) that has heavier barrel and a bipod. I have not heard any significant complains anout IW. It is a well made rifle and seems to be performing well. However, it does not have the three-shot burst capability as M16A2 has. +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ : Antti Lahtinen : "Justice is Only a Whish of a Weak" : : al76188@tut.fi : - Warhammer 40.000 :