An automatic grenade launcher (AGL) or grenade machine gun is a

grenade launcher A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially-designed large-caliber projectile, often with an explosive, smoke or gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary grenade cartridges. The m ...

that is capable of

fully automatic fire An automatic firearm is an auto-loading firearm that continuously chambers and fires rounds when the trigger mechanism is actuated. The action of an automatic firearm is capable of harvesting the excess energy released from a previous discharg ...

, and is typically loaded with either an

ammunition belt upright=1.35, An 7.62×51mm_NATO.html" ;"title="M60 machine gun belt loaded with 7.62×51mm NATO">M60 machine gun belt loaded with 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges, aboard a U.S. Navy patrol craft An ammunition belt is a firearm device used to packag ...

or magazine. These weapons are often mounted on vehicles or helicopters, as when these weapons are moved by infantry the weapon, its tripod, and ammunition, are a heavy load, requiring a small team. Other types of grenade launchers are typically much lighter and can easily be carried by just a single soldier. The

Mark 19 Automatic Grenade Launcher The Mk 19 grenade launcher (pronounced Mark 19) is an American 40 mm belt-fed automatic grenade launcher that was first developed during the Vietnam War. Overview The Mk 19 is a belt-fed, blowback-operated, air-cooled, crew-serve ...

, first fielded by the United States in 1966, and still widely used today, weighs 62.5 kg (137.58 lb) when attached to its tripod, and loaded with a box of ammunition. For comparison, the single-shot

M79 grenade launcher The M79 grenade launcher is a single-shot, shoulder-fired, break-action grenade launcher that fires a 40×46mm grenade, which uses what the US Army calls the High-Low Propulsion System to keep recoil forces low, and first appeared during the Vi ...

weighs 2.93 kg (6.45 lb). Regardless of their weight, AGLs are still highly effective, and the Mark 19 is capable of

indirect fire Indirect fire is aiming and firing a projectile without relying on a direct line of sight between the gun and its target, as in the case of direct fire. Aiming is performed by calculating azimuth and inclination, and may include correcting ai ...

up to 2,200 metres, a role traditionally reserved for

mortars Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a village ...

. Even though the round carries less explosive than a 60mm mortar shell, this is thought to be counterbalanced by its much higher volume of fire. The most popular caliber for automatic grenade launchers in Western nations has been

40mm 40 mm grenade (also styled 40mm grenade) is a generic class-name for grenade launcher ammunition (subsonic shells) in caliber. The generic name stems from the fact that several countries have developed or adopted grenade launchers in 40 m ...

. The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

successfully fielded a 30mm grenade launcher, the

AGS-17 The AGS-17 Plamya ( Russian: Пламя; ''Flame'') is a Soviet-designed automatic grenade launcher in service worldwide. Description The AGS-17 is a heavy infantry support weapon designed to operate from a tripod or mounted on an installatio ...

, during its war in Afghanistan. In 2002,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

introduced a successor weapon, the

AGS-30 The AGS-30 ''Atlant'' is a Russian automatic grenade launcher currently in production in Russia and in service with the Russian armed forces. Description Designed on the basis of AGS-17, the AGS-30 provides better mobility, longer range and b ...

, and in 2017, the

AGS-40 Balkan AGS‑40 Balkan is a Russian 40 mm caseless automatic grenade launcher and successor to AGS-17 and AGS-30, introduced and adopted by the Russian military. Design The AGS-40 uses 40 mm CL ( caseless) grenades with a range of 2,500 m (compared t ...

. Traditional munitions for automatic grenade launchers include

high explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An e ...

, fragmentation, and

shaped charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, init ...

for attacking light armored vehicles. Less lethal rounds, like tear gas and

sponge grenade A sponge grenade is a riot control weapon, intended to be non-lethal, which is fired from a 40 mm grenade launcher to cause confusion, or otherwise temporarily disable its target. As a single blunt force object, it is best used when aimed ...

s for crowd control, have also been made. In the 21st century, AGLs have been made with integrated sight/range systems which can set a fused round to detonate precisely on, above, or behind a designated target. Different weapons use different methods of operation, with blowback and

long recoil Recoil operation is an operating mechanism used to implement locked breech, autoloading firearms. Recoil operated firearms use the energy of recoil to cycle the action, as opposed to Gas-operated reloading, gas operation or Blowback (firearms), bl ...

being two common choices. In all these weapons, the energy released by firing a round loads the next round into the weapon's breech. The Mark 19 is automatically reloaded through the blowback method, where expanding gases blow back the firing bolt. In the long recoil method the bolt is fixed to the firing chamber, and the whole firing chamber is blown back. These weapons are slightly less accurate, but weigh less than blowback weapons.

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Un ...

manufactures a long recoil weapon, the

Mark 47 Automatic Grenade Launcher The Mk 47 or Striker 40 is a 40mm automatic grenade launcher with an integrated fire control system, capable of launching smart programmable 40mm air burst grenades in addition to various unguided rounds. Design The Mk 47 has the latest sensi ...

, as does the Spanish firm Santa Bárbara. The

LAG-40 The SB-40 LAG is a 40 mm automatic grenade launcher developed and produced in Spain by the Empresa Nacional Santa Bárbara (EN SB) company (currently a part of the European Land Systems Group of General Dynamics). Users * : Used by Brazili ...

manufactured by Santa Bárbara has a relatively low rate of fire of 215 rounds per minute.

Comparison

Ammunition

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+new+generation+of+AGLs%3A+within+only+a+few+decades+the+Automatic...-a086195789 , title = A new generation of AGLs , publisher = Armada International , date = 2002-04-01 , access-date = 2015-03-09 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110430050116/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+new+generation+of+AGLs%3A+within+only+a+few+decades+the+Automatic...-a086195789 , archive-date = 2011-04-30 , url-status = live {{cite news , url = http://www.casr.ca/doc-npp-casw-agl.htm , title = CASW (Close Area Suppression Weapon System) Automatic Grenade Launcher — MERX Notice of Proposed Procurement , publisher =

Canadian American Strategic Review The Canadian American Strategic Review was an influential Canadian think-tank that comments on Canadian Defence and sovereignty issues. The think-tank operated, for many years, from the campus of Simon Fraser University. History In 2007 the ''Can ...

, date = August 2009 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090605221412/http://www.casr.ca/bg-casw.htm , archive-date = 2009-06-05 , access-date = 2015-03-09 , url-status = live {{cite news , url = http://casr.ca/bg-casw2.htm , title = Background – CASW Project – Company Area Suppression Weapon , publisher =

, date = December 2008 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090808073348/http://casr.ca/bg-casw2.htm , archive-date = 2009-08-08 , access-date = 2015-03-09 , url-status = live , quote = In its current form, the Mk19 mod 3, this AGL has become the weapon of choice among US ground troops in Iraq – primarily because the AGL offers both direct (to 1,600 meters) and indirect fire (to 2,200 meters). {{cite book , author=Spencer C. Tucker , title=The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qh5lffww-KsC&pg=PA431 , date=20 May 2011 , publisher=ABC-CLIO , isbn=978-1-85109-961-0 , page=431 , access-date=17 October 2016 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160517145920/https://books.google.com/books?id=qh5lffww-KsC&pg=PA431 , archive-date=17 May 2016 , url-status=live {{cite book , title=Us Future Combat & Weapon Systems Handbook , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lPmVrgeVoI0C&pg=PA265 , date=30 March 2009 , publisher=International Business Publications , isbn=978-1-4387-5447-5 , page=265 , access-date=17 October 2016 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604005616/https://books.google.com/books?id=lPmVrgeVoI0C&pg=PA265 , archive-date=4 June 2016 , url-status=live {{cite book , author=Dennis J. Blasko , title=The Chinese Army Today: Tradition and Transformation for the 21st Century , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G1SauJF3GqwC&pg=PA168 , date=17 June 2013 , publisher=

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, ...

, isbn=978-1-136-51997-0 , page=168 , access-date=17 October 2016 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519120333/https://books.google.com/books?id=G1SauJF3GqwC&pg=PA168 , archive-date=19 May 2016 , url-status=live {{cite news , url = http://casr.ca/bg-casw2.htm , title = Background — CASW Candidates Operating Systems – Long Recoil , publisher =

, date = December 2008 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090808073348/http://casr.ca/bg-casw2.htm , archive-date = 2009-08-08 , access-date = 2015-03-09 , url-status = live , quote = The long recoil operating system’s obvious advantage is the compact gun body. While this compensates for the weapon’s internal complications, that moving barrel might also result in first-round aiming inaccuracies. The AGL designers are willing to overlook this in exchange for reduced weight (in comparison to a blowback design) and for the portability inherent in a smaller weapon (even if weight reduction is modest). In any case, great accuracy is not the forte of the AGLs. * Machine guns

Automatic grenade launchers An automatic grenade launcher (AGL) or grenade machine gun is a grenade launcher that is capable of fully automatic fire, and is typically loaded with either an ammunition belt or magazine. These weapons are often mounted on vehicles or helicopt ...

Comparison

Ammunition

See also

References