- published: 23 May 2011
- views: 16223903
The 40mm grenade is a military grenade caliber for grenade launchers in service with many armed forces. There are two main types in service: the 40×46mm, which is a low-velocity round used in hand-held grenade launchers; and the high-velocity 40×53mm, used in mounted and crew-served weapons. The cartridges are not interchangeable. Both 40mm cartridges use what the US Army during the Vietnam War called the High-Low Propulsion System.
The less powerful 40×46mm is used in hand-held weapons such as the M79, M203, the M320 grenade launcher, and the multi-shot M32 MGL.
The more powerful 40×53mm is used in grenade launchers mounted on vehicles or tripods, often with automatic firing capabilities such as the Mk 19 grenade launcher, the Mk 47 "Striker" 40 mm Grenade Machine Guns (GMGs), the Heckler & Koch GMG or the South African Vektor Y3 AGL. In these roles, the rounds are linked together with a metallic disintegrating link and fired automatically. The 40×53mm is also used in some mounted helicopter grenade launcher systems, which are electrically powered and primed.