This critical piece of hardware is key for employing effective gunnery skills.Īmmunition is typically packed in 32 or 48 round capacities.
Standard Traverse and Elevation mechanism for the M3. While the metallic belt is disintegrating, the links remain on the case and are ejected downward with the empties. Firing from an open bolt, pressing the trigger releases the bolt and the already-positioned round into the chamber and fires when in battery. Like Browning’s M2, the Mk19 uses a two-stage feed, drawing each round rearward from the belt of ammunition in the feed area and placing it into a slot cut in the bolt face.
MK19 GRENADE LAUNCHER MOD
The Mark 19 Model 3 (Mk19 MOD 3) automatic grenade launcher is an air cooled, belt fed, blowback operated machine gun firing from the open bolt. Each HE (High Explosive) and HEDP (High Explosive Dual Purpose) is as potent as a hand grenade and the Mk19 throws about 350 each minute! Comparing a 5.56 (.223) next to a 40x53mm grenade shows the power difference. Saco Defense (now General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products – GDATP) was contracted to manufacture the weapon and has produced approximately 35,000 Mk19 MOD 3 grenade launchers for all branches of the US armed forces. Both the Army and Marine Corps saw the potential in the system for defense, retrograde, patrolling, rear area security and special operations, adopting it for ground use 1983. In the late 1970s the design was again overhauled and became the MOD 3. Product improvements in the MOD 1 performed effectively enough when tested on Navy patrol craft and the design was refined further. The first version was dubbed the Mk19 MOD 0 but didn’t prove reliable enough for field use. The US Navy looked to boost the range by developing a self-powered fully automatic grenade machine gun around the much higher velocity 40x53mm M384 grenade, a cartridge originally developed for the M75 grenade launcher used on UH-1 and AH-1 helicopters. Originally designed to be shoulder fired, the M406 High Explosive grenade has a absolute maximum range of about 400 meters. While these designs where a step in the right direction, they all suffered from short effective ranges due to the low pressure cartridge used. This yields a high trajectory that is both an advantage and disadvantage. Catching a fired grenade in flight is not an overly daunting task for a photographer because of the low muzzle velocity. Among these the most notable was the MK 18, a belt-fed and hand-cranked grenade launcher developed by the Hughes Corporation. Looking to boost the firepower of riverine crafts and marine infantry in jungle environments, several multi-shot 40mm grenade launchers were tested that fired the low velocity 40x46mm M406 grenade originally developed for the M79. While GMGs are a more recent entry into the Army small arms inventory, development began in the Navy during the early 1960’s.
One system at the very edge of this strata is the Mk19 Grenade Machine Gun. In the US military it typically means any weapon that typically doesn’t require a specific job description to employ. NATO defines this as any individual or crew-portable direct fire weapon with a bore diameter less than 50 mm, even if capable of defeating light armor and helicopters.
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