Army to buy thousands more Mk19s, M2s

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A 4th Infantry Division soldier provides security in Iraq in 2007 with a MK19-3 40mm grenade machine gun mounted in the turret of a Humvee.


Army to buy thousands more Mk19s, M2s
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 15, 2008 17:00:26 EDT

The Army is buying 4,600 Mk19 grenade launchers and 29,900 .50-caliber crew-served M2 machine guns, whose heavy-caliber rounds and high rate of fire have proven valuable in infantry counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, service officials said.

Such weapons help target small groups of insurgents on the run or blended in with the local populations.

“Normally with a 7.62mm, you have a lot more difficulty when you have an enemy going behind a cinder block wall,” said Richard Audette, Army deputy project manager for soldier weapons at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. “With a .50-caliber, you can take the wall out.”

“We always like to talk about scaleable effects, both lethal and nonlethal. When it comes to hitting a target with just enough force, I can’t drop a 5,000-pound bomb,” said Rickey Smith, who directs the U.S. Army Capabilities Integration Center-Forward.

Army-led competitions for new Mk19s and M2 .50-calibers are nearing production awards. General Dynamics Armament Technical Products has supplied both weapons since the 1980s, but the Army has opened the competition to other vendors, including Belgium’s FN Herstal.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_50cal_091508w/%2e