"The U.S. Army Designs A New Hand Grenade" Topic

"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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Amicalement
Armand

I remember being trained with the M67 …

Interesting. Good to see that they are designing it to be ambidextrous (a simple spinning head would suffice), but it would be great if they could somehow include a telescoping arm that would give the greater range advantage enjoyed by the German potato-masher grenades. If it had a telescoping tubular steel or carbon-fiber shaft (similar to an ASP baton), it might be strong enough to allow it to be thrown like a potato masher while reducing the grenade's profile while on the soldier's load-bearing equipment and keeping the small profile that allows the current M67 to be thrown through a bunker's firing port.

I remember being trained with the M67 …

I remember a 'cruit who accidentally dropped one just on the other side of the berm during BCT familiarization. The drills threw him down and jumped on top of him, which I know was meant to save his life but which I think was really punishment for dropping the damn grenade!

I remember being trained with the M67 …

Not the Ketchum grenade?

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Will troops still be able to pull the pin with their teeth?
LOL!

I remember a 'cruit who accidentally dropped one just on the other side of the berm during BCT familiarization. The drills threw him down and jumped on top of him, which I know was meant to save his life but which I think was really punishment for dropping the damn grenade!

Yes, unlike in the movies … grenades are nothing to fool with.

During MOUT live fire training. A troop threw a grenade, thru a door way. But didn't pull is foot back and got hit. A good lesson to be learned for all. OUCH !

On a grenade range when I was an ROTC Cadet. A thrown grenade did not go off. The Range OIC who was EOD, died trying to remove it. The NCO behind him was wounded in the arm.

There were duds on almost every grenade range I was on. I think back then the older ones had a high dud rate it seemed ?

Not the Ketchum grenade?

Well that was before I joined ROTC …

Will troops still be able to pull the pin with their teeth?

Only if they want to spend the next day at the TMC with a Dentist …

It's only punishment for dropping the grenade if the DI lead the drop with his knee or elbow. Which I wouldn't put it past a DI to do, just to drive home the point that grenades are NOT your friend, even when the pin is still in.

I suspect that the clumsy recruit spent the rest of the day with his entire gear on and probably a DI standing on his shoulders while he did push-ups, however!

As it should have been …