A lot has changed since 1968. The Army\u2019s offensive grenade has not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The M67 has been a workhorse for the Army for decades, but it could use some upgrades, according to the lethality branch chief at Fort Benning\u2019s Maneuver Center of Excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOver Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, we collected soldier feedback,\u201d Maj. Jason Bohannon told Army Times in July. \u201cAnd that feedback told us that the M67 hand grenade had limitations \u2014 which we\u2019ve known of \u2014 in restricted terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s also not as safe as it could be, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot\u2019s changed since 1968 in terms of what the Army deems a safe munition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So for the past few years, the Army has been working on new grenades from several angles, to create a new frag grenade that is less sensitive to unwitting explosions but that can fragment farther in dense vegetation like tall grass and wooded areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you have a hand grenade in your kit, you don\u2019t want it to go off because it\u2019s been exposed to something in the environment,\u201d Bohannon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t me accidentally pulling the pin. Imagine a case of hand grenades sitting in a storage case, and there\u2019s a fire. We don\u2019t want the entire warehouse to explode.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are also plans in the works for a new blast grenade, and, eventually, one grenade that can switch between blast and fragmentation, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One grenade is better than two<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
First up, the Army wants to bring back the power of a blast grenade. The service used to have the MK3A2 concussion model, which takes out targets with a single blast rather than by shooting out fragments, but it was pulled from use in 1975 because it was full of asbestos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its replacement is coming in 2020, Bohannon said, dubbed the XM111.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, MCoE and the Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center have been working on a more long-term project: A multipurpose grenade that can be both a fragmentation and a concussion grenade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight now it\u2019s in critical design and testing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re really early in the engineering process, which is why we consider this late mid-term to far-term. Probably not a technology that we see until the late 2020s, early 2030s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in the meantime, there\u2019s still a need for that safer, more lethal frag grenade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The technology to make one exists, Bohannon said, but there isn\u2019t a specifically funded program to develop it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe intent would be in the interim to produce an improved M67,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only caveat to that is, the tech is there, it\u2019s just a matter of resourcing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith the right funding and time, we could probably do it within a few years,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A lot has changed since 1968. The Army\u2019s offensive grenade has not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":67754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[100,12,25,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3301],"class_list":["post-34205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"Both blast and fragmentation models are due for an upgrade","legacy_arc_id":"G5BE2MRKZNB3LBBN6IWURQF2BU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2017\/08\/26\/the-army-is-working-on-a-safer-but-more-lethal-hand-grenade\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n