Rapid-fire grenade launcher will be a welcome Christmas present for Royal Marines in Afghanistan

The Automatic Lightweight Grenade Launcher recently made its thunderous debut during a Combined Arms Firepower and Manoeuvre Demonstration on Salisbury Plain.

In front of a diverse audience, including students from the Staff College and civilians invited along to see how the Army goes to work, a Weapons Mount Installation Kit (WMIK) Land Rover fitted with the new launcher roared through the mud in front of the stand and fired grenades down the range at a mocked-up advancing enemy force. 

Job done, the Wimik roared off again to take up position on a sidetrack to be admired by a group of specialist defence journalists and television cameramen.

Colonel Alec Bain explained the role of the new weapon:

"Firstly let me say that the guys who have trained with the kit are absolutely chuffed with it. Traditionally we have used the vehicle- mounted 0.5 inch heavy machine gun to tie down the enemy and allow our people to move freely about the battlefield, but this weapon will increase our ability to do that."

Mounted on WMIK (weapons mount installation kit) Land Rovers or ground-based tripods, the Heckler & Koch grenade machine gun (GMG), which weighs 30kg, is a formidable weapon against infantry and light armour.  Key characteristics are:

• Rate of fire is up to 340 rounds per minute, usually in bursts of three to five rounds
• Effective over a range of 1.5 kms for point targets, or two kms for area cover
• Ammunition is 40mm high velocity and high explosive grenades. 40mm "flash bang" grenades can be fired for training purposes
• Wimiks equipped with the weapon carry 10 ammunition boxes, each packed with 32 rounds

Although the heavy machine gun has proved its effectiveness and will continue to be widely used, views coming back from the front line were that this kinetic fire-power needed some high explosive back-up to provide full force protection and security to airfields and forward operating bases.

That is why the MOD has bought 40 of the powerful new grenade launchers to be deployed to Afghanistan in December this year.  Colonel Bain said:

"The Royal Marines who will be receiving them have already been trained on the weapons, and are looking forward to getting their hands on them.

"They will be force protection systems which can be used day and night.  They will be used predominantly on the back of WMIK Land Rovers, but they can also be tripod mounted for ground use."

Capable of firing up to 340 rounds per minute, usually in bursts of three to five rounds, the Heckler & Koch GMG pumps out 40mm high explosive grenades to a range of 1.5 kms for point targets, or two kms for area cover.

Although the ammunition can be used against light armour, its principle role is infantry suppression.

This procurement is the latest in a series of recent firepower boosts for the infantry that have included the belt-fed Minimi light machine gun, the Javelin anti-tank missile, the under-slung grenade launcher for the SA80 rifle and the head-mounted night vision system with laser aimer. Colonel Bain said:

"If the automatic grenade launcher proves as capable and as useful as we believe it is. I'm sure we would like to buy some more."

This article by Ian Carr first appeared in the November 2006 edition of Focus - the newspaper for people in Defence.