Army approves first new hand grenade since 1968
2 days ago
- #combat effectiveness
- #military technology
- #grenade development
- The U.S. Army has cleared the M111 Offensive Hand Grenade (OHG) for Full Material Release (FMR).
- The M111 OHG replaces the obsolete Mk3A2 hand grenade, which contained asbestos, with a safer plastic body that fully detonates.
- The M111 uses blast overpressure (BOP) instead of fragmentation, making it more effective in enclosed urban environments.
- Unlike the M67 fragmentation grenade, the M111 minimizes the risk of fratricide in close-quarter combat.
- The M111 and its training version, the M112, standardize the arming process with the M67 and M69, improving training and combat readiness.
- Standardization of fuzes between the M111/M112 and M67/M69 allows cost savings through common production lines.
- The M111 design includes government-owned intellectual property, enabling competitive production contracts across vendors.
- The new grenade provides flexibility for soldiers to choose between fragmentation (M67) or BOP (M111) based on combat scenarios.