M79 grenade launcher
The M79 grenade launcher is a single-shot, break-open, shoulder-fired weapon. It is breech-loading and fires a 40mm grenade. It was designed as a close support weapon for the infantry. Designed to close the gap between the maximum range of a hand grenade and the minimum range of a mortar, the lightweight M79 fired a 40-mm high-explosive fragmentation projectile to a range of approximately 400 meters. It was used extensively during the Vietnam War, giving U.S. troops the capability to engage enemy point targets to 150 meters and area targets to 350 meters. With two launchers per rifle squad and a total of eighty-five in the battalion, the M79 helped to improve the capabilities of small infantry units.
The M79 has an open, fixed front sight and an open rear leaf sight that is adjustable for windage. The M79 grenade launcher was designed to fire a 40mm grenade more accurately than when fired from a rifle grenade launcher. The secret to the success of the M79 was a high-low pressure system that allowed the propellant to develop a relatively high pressure in, a high-pressure chamber, before venting gases into a low pressure chamber in the grenade cartridge case. The M79 grenade launcher is a single-shot, break-open, breech-loading, shoulder-fired weapon. It has a protected fixed front sight and a rear leaf sight that is adjustable for windage.
One of the few completely new Infantry weapons to appear during the Vietnam War, the M79 had no counterpart in the enemy's arsenal. It resembles a sawed-off shotgun and fires a spherical 40mm grenade which has a "kill radius" of five meters. Grooves in its barrel imparted a spiral spin to the warhead stabilizing its flight. The spiral also caused weights in the fuse mechanism to arm the fuse after about thirty meters of flight, after which the shell detonated on impact. The grenades were thus safe from accidental detonation from a bump or fall, or if struck by a bullet.
The XM148 System, a combination of the M79 Grenade Launcher and Ml6 Rifle, was introduced in early 1967. While M79 users welcomed the rifle/grenade launcher concept, it proved completely unsatisfactory under combat conditions. Users complained that the sight was prone to snagging in underbrush. The sight was difficult to use with any accuracy. Also listed as snag prone are The extended trigger and trigger bar were also prone to snagging, and could be bent or broken when opening or closing the rifle's receiver during/after fieldstripping. The separate cocking lever was very unpopular due to the force required to cock the weapon. Within a few months, units with the XM148 were clamoring to have their M79 reissued. The XM148 served as a proof of concept for more sucessful M203 grenade launcher
The M203 was designed and procured as the replacement for the Vietnam era M79 grenade launcher. By 1969 the new M79 grenade launcher was supplanted by the even newer M203 grenade launcher attached to the M16 rifle—adding three pounds to its weight. But the M79 launcher, called the "blooper," continued to be a favorite with Marines in Viet Nam. Both fired a 40mm grenade.
Rifle grenades can deliver to point and area targets up to 350 meters away from individual soldiers. The M203 and M79 grenade launchers and the MK19 automatic grenade launcher all can fire smoke grenades. The smoke cartridges include the M713 red smoke, M715 smoke green smoke, and M716 yellow smoke cartridges. Soldiers use rifle grenades to obscure snipers, enemy fighting positions, and heavy weapon emplacements. The can provide immediate suppressive smoke to degrade enemy weapon guidance links or tracking. They can also conceal the movement of small tactical units (squad or smaller).
