An under-slung grenade launcher is a grenade launcher that is fitted underneath the barrel of an assault rifle.
Under-slung grenade launchers generally have their own trigger group; to fire, one simply changes grips, disengages the safety, and pulls the trigger. In Western systems, the barrel slides forward or pivots to the side to allow reloading, most fire a 40×46mm grenade cartridge.
Soviet/Russian launchers are instead loaded from the muzzle, with the cartridge casing affixed to the projectile in the style of a mortar shell. For aiming, attached grenade launchers typically use a separate sight attached to the rifle's frame alongside the iron sights, or attach a flip-up sight directly to one of the rifle's sights.
Examples of modern attached grenade launchers are the M203, GP-30, AG36, and FN40GL which mount to service rifles.
A late development is the 3GL from Metal Storm. As with most Metal Storm products, this weapon contains three electrically ignited grenades stacked front-to-back in a single tube to eliminate reloading.
Examples[]
- United States M203
Germany/
United Kingdom AG36
Russia GP-25/30
Poland wz. 1974- Belgium GL1
- Germany/United States M320
- South Africa Milkor 40mm UBGL
The original article can be found at Under-slung grenade launcher and the edit history here.