US Army's New Super Weapon: Merge a Machine Gun with a Rocket Launcher

Kris Osborn

Security,

The Army is in the early stages of beginning to create requirements for a new externally-mounted weapon to replace both the M2 .50-cal machine gun and the Mk19 grenade launcher.

The Army is in the early stages of beginning to create requirements for a new externally-mounted weapon to replace both the M2 .50-cal machine gun and the Mk19 grenade launcher.

The idea is to simulteneously lighten the load of mobile attack forces while increasing their lethaltiy and envelope of attack with a single system that achieves the offensive firepower, and desired combat effects, of both weapons. 

“This will be one weapon with a totally different new type of ammo that is not yet even in the developmental phase,” Laura Battista, Product Management Engineer, told Scout Warrior in an interview.

The effort is still very much in the early or conceptual phases, however future engineering and requirements initiatives plan to give shape, contours and direction to the new weapon; as a result, Army officials did not yet specify a timeframe as to when this might be operational. However, it is reasonable to assume that requirements, designs and then prototypes could emerge in the next few years. 

The details of how this will be accomplished have not yet emerged, however the planning is to engineer a weapon that has the attack and suppressive fire ability of a .50-Cal along with an explosive "area weapon" effect of a grenade launcher. 

The new, combined-fires weapons would bring both logistical and tactical advantages. A single unit on-the-move could much more easily attack a wider range of targets with one weapon, bot laying down suppressive fire oar attack with machine gun fire and also achieve the effects of firing grenades at enemy locations when needed.  

Meanwhile, the Army will also embark upon a simultaneous excursion to develop a lighter profile barrel for the .50-cal.

“We will have many barrels that will lessen the logistic burden of having a spare barrel all the time. We are also hoping to save a lot of weight. We are hoping to save 16-pounds off of a 26-pound barrel,” Battista explained.

(This first appeared in Scout Warrior here) 

The Army’s .50-cal program is looking at a longer-term project to engineer a lighter weight caseless ammunition which will reduce the amount of brass needed, Lt. Col. Paul Alessio, Product Manager Crew Served Weapons Alessio, told Scout Warrior in an interview. 

Read full article