Grenade launchers looked to be the future of infantry weapons

There was a period before and during the early stages of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) that the future of infantry weapons seemed to be some form of small grenade-launching device.

Supported by the Army and Pentagon, these wouldn’t be your average grenade launchers, but direct-fire weapons throwing 20mm to 25mm grenades like traditional small arms rounds – and their grenades would be “smart” meaning they could airburst.

Today, we are going to look at three examples of weapons that could have been used. 

The OICW , a grenade launcher for the average troop

The Objective Individual Combat Weapon, or OICW, aimed to be a grenade launcher that the average infantryman could carry.

The OICW program had three models, each aiming to improve the other. The core program was to develop a 20mm or 25mm smart-grenade launcher for the average infantryman. The airburst capabilities of smart grenades would make enemy cover a thing of the past. 

The OICW series started with a combined 5.56 rifle and semi-auto grenade launcher, but that was unwieldy, so the second model was a 25mm standalone grenade launcher that fed from a box magazine. The third and final model was an improved version of the second. 

The system was tested extensively and even scored kills against an enemy machine gun position in Afghanistan. However, the program still faltered and was abandoned to likely focus on the immediate needs of the military resulting from the GWOT.

The system wasn’t very reliable, and its ammunition was incredibly expensive and hadn’t been successfully mass-produced. Although, OICW had a lot of promise, and will forever be burned in my mind because of the Ghost Recon video game and XBOX, it’s sadly long gone. 

The grenade-launching XM307 machine gun

Grenade-launching machine guns aren’t new. For example, the Mk-19 has served for a few decades now and proven to be a capable weapon. However, the Mk-19 and its 40mm ammo was considered heavy, additionally, it’s fairly finicky in the reliability department, in my experience. The XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon would be a 25mm, belt-fed smart grenade launcher. 

The XM307 could use an airburst 25x59mm grenade round, which, when fired, could be programmed to explode at a certain range. If an enemy was hiding behind cover, you could fire the grenades over or beside the cover with the range set to explode near the enemy. This makes lots of different types of cover useless. 

The weapon weighed two-thirds of the Mk-19 but had considerably lighter ammunition. It used a gas-operated differential system, which aided in recoil control and eliminated the need for sandbags when mounted to a tripod. The system used a Raytheon-designed fire-control system to program the rounds and was planned to have a remote-operated variant in the future. Further, it could be easily converted to .50 BMG on demand.

The XM307 was fairly successful but never reached its goal of weighing less than 40 pounds. The military also wanted a higher rate of fire than the weapon could provide. Sadly, there were no attempts to fix its shortcomings, and the program was cancelled.

Related: Grenade launchers are firing a lot more than grenades these days

The XM109, a grenade-firing sniper rifle

Based on the classic M82, the XM109 sniper rifle was designed to take out lightly armored targets, specifically trucks, troop transports, and even some APCs. It fired 25mm grenades – the same ones used by the XM307 – and had a maximum range of 3,600 meters.

Barrett was always known for going big and did so again with the XM109. The XM109’s upper receiver could plop right down on the M82’s lower. The weapon was fed from a five-round magazine, and a short-recoil system was used for semi-auto capability.

Previously, the traditional light armor eliminator would be a recoilless anti-tank weapon like the AT4. Yet, anti-tank weapons are impossible to use inside buildings because of their loudness and backblast.

The XM109 offered the significant advantage of being usable from concealment.

Further, although anti-tank weapons are much more powerful, the XM109 was lighter weighing over 30 pounds. Its downside was its recoil that measured out to about 60-foot pounds, which is almost double that of a standard .50 cal sniper rifle. 

Grenade launchers looked to be the future of military weaponry, but sadly, every program failed; the closest we got were some 40mm smart grenades used by the Mk 47.

Smart grenades could be an extremely capable weapon if we could get them to work well – maybe by the time we fight the bugs on Klendathu they will be a reality.

Feature Image: The OICW XM29 grenade launcher. (U.S. Army)

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