The US Army has approved the offensive hand grenade for deployment M111. It is about the first new lethal hand grenade approved for service since 1968 and is designed for today’s battlefields.
For nearly six decades, American troops have relied on designs that correspond to the era of the vietnam war. Weapons such as the fragmentation grenade M67introduced in the late 1960s, have been the Army’s primary hand grenade for generations. Although reliable, that and other older designs were created for different combat conditions and were not optimized for urban environments which soldiers increasingly face. Therefore, the M111 represents a significant change in the way the Army approaches urban warfare.
The pomegranate has been developed by the Ammunition and Energy Executive Capabilities Program in collaboration with the Picatinny Arsenal DEVCOM Weapons Center.
A grenade focused on blast wave instead of fragmentation
The decision to introduce a grenade centered on the shock wave arises from the lessons learned during house-to-house fighting in the Iraq war. Military commanders noted that fragmentation grenades often meant a high risk of ‘friendly fire’ because fragments could pass through thin walls or bounce unpredictably in tight spaces.
The M111 addresses this problem by the use of blast overpressure instead of fragmentation. It has a plastic body that is completely consumed during detonation, unlike its predecessor, the Mk3A2whose use was restricted due to containing asbestos in the casing, Military Times reports. This design makes the M111 a safer option for both training and real operations.
‘One of the key lessons learned from urban door-to-door combat in Iraq was that the M67 grenade was not always the right tool for the job. The risk of friendly fire on the other side of the wall was too high‘, says the colonel Vince Morrisproject manager Army Close Combat Systemsin a statement.
Morris also explains that a grenade that uses blast wave overpressure can quickly clear a room of enemy combatants, leaving them nowhere to hide while ensuring the safety of friendly forceswhich provides a powerful tactical advantage on the ground.
The M111 is not intended to completely replace the M67, but to offer a specialized alternative for small spaces which soldiers can choose depending on the situation. The M67 for open spaces, where fragmentation ammunition works best, and the M111 for closed spaces, where the blast wave can neutralize the enemy without the danger of shrapnel.
‘We have given our soldiers and joint fighters the flexibility to determine in the field what type of grenade best suits the specific situation they facewhether it is an open space or a confined area,’ says Tiffany Chengengineer at the DEVCOM Armament Center.
For ease of use, the M111 and its training variant, the M112, use the same five-step activation process as the current M67. This helps soldiers rely on familiar muscle memory in pressure situations.
The M111 shares fuze with the M67allowing the Army to achieve significant savings through the use of already established production lines and benefit from higher production volumes. Additionally, since the Government owns the rights to the design, various manufacturers can compete to offer the best price.