#M79

One of the biggest buzzes during the show was the booth from Vietnamese Defence Industries (VDI). This was the first such appearance of the Vietnamese delegation to any major trade show outside of Vietnam with the amount of materiel that was being presented to the public. Vietnam has slowly been building up a small arms production capability for the past decade, taking on serious collaboration with IWI Defense from Israel in addition to what might be some defense collaboration with Russia over technical data packages. Examples of this can be seen in being licensed to produce the 7.62x39mm Galil Ace rifle domestically in 2014 and even the bolt action 12.7mm KSVK anti-materiel rifle as well. Although few of these designs are indigenous to Vietnam and are instead foreign variants being license produced by companies within state-owned VDI, the ability of the country to be outputting small arms is still very significant and should be paid attention to. One piece of the puzzle that we don’t know yet (and asked the booth reps), is how much of each weapon system was actually produced from raw materials in Vietnam and how much was brought in from the original manufacturer. In some cases with developing countries, the most difficult or costly components are imported while the rest of the firearm is actually made in the country. One example of this is the barrel, which can be extremely difficult to manufacture precisely on an industrial basis.

Back in March we reported that the USMC order just over 600 M320 grenade launchers. The Marine Corps has now confirmed that each squad will be equipped with three M320s – issued to specialised grenadiers who will be attached to the Marine Corps new three-man fireteams. This comes as the Corps transitions to a new 12-man Rifle Squad structure the result of a number of experimentation and evaluation programs including Marine Corps Force 2025 and Sea Dragon 2025.

Spike’s Tactical’s have unveiled their new 37mm flare launcher. Tapping into the nostalgia factor they have built a clone of the classic Vietnam War-era 40mm grenade launcher. The M79 nicknamed the ‘blooper’ or ‘thumper’ by troops because of the characteristic sound it made when fired.

Nguyen Tan Dung is a Vietnamese defense website and posted about this graduated reflex sight that the Vietnamese Military Technical Academy has come up with to be paired with the 40x46mm low-velocity M79 single shot/ stand alone grenade launcher. Although the Vietnamese post was published in the summer of 2015, the innovation displayed here is too strong to be ignored and not shared. This article mentions that components of the sight are produced and assembled in Vietnam. It looks very similar to one of Hartman’s reflex sight designs and knowing that IWI and the Vietnamese government have a very close industrial relationship, I wouldn’t put it too far out that this is the case. The article wrote that although the sight is engineered for the M79 copy currently in use by Vietnamese troops, plans are being made to adjust it to the locally produced MGL copy of the Milknor design when that comes into service.

At the 2017 National Defense Industry Association small arms conference in April, the US Army revealed its efforts to produce new improved varieties of 40mm low velocity ammunition for the M203 and M320 grenade launchers. Product Director for Medium Caliber Ammunition Christopher Seacord’s presentation at NDIA lists three new types of 40mm ammunition: XM1166 High Explosive Air Burst (HEAB), XM1167 Door Breach (DB), and XM1168 Short Range Anti-Personnel (SRAP):

You don’t often see an M32 Milkor Multiple Grenade Launcher being used side by side with an old-school  M79 Grenade Launcher. Ray sent us this photo taken in Ramadi, Iraq where he and the 3d Batallion, 8th Marines were stationed in 2006. Ray wrote …