ARMOR, September-October 1991 Edition - Fort Benning - U.S. Army

The Mk 19 MOD 3 Grenade
Machine Gun on the MI and M3
by Captain Andrew Harvey and Sergeant First Class Robert Firkins
The U.S. Army Armor Force needs
the capability to engage dismounted
infantry with an area-fire weapon be-
yond the effective range of machine
gun fire. The need for this capability
was outlined in a speech by Brigadier
General Rabin, the commander of the
Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Armor
School, when he spoke to the U.S.
Army Armor School on 14 November
1990. In that speech, he described
how a 60-mm mortar had been incor-
porated internally into the Merkava
Mk 3 tank. He then outlined the rea-
sons why the IDF felt it needed this
type of weapon on its tanks.
IDF combat experience demon-
strated that large expenditures of ma-
chine gun ammunition against enemy
troops produced remarkably few
enemy casualties. Direct machine gun
fm against infantry in dug-in posi-
tions or behind berms was not effec-
tive. Infantry in positions beyond ef-
fective machine gun range of 800 to
900 meters can still effectively engage
armor with antitank weapons up to
3000 meters. The Israeli tank’s inter-
nally mounted mom can effectively
engage infantry in trenches and fight-
ing positions with high-angle fire out
to 3000 meters.
Cumnt Bradley and tank weapons
cannot accomplish this task. The M1
Abrams’ main gun, SO caliber ma-
chine gun, and two 7.62-mm machine
guns cannot place high-angle fire on a
dug-in troop target. The M3/M2 Brad-
ley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) has a
7.62-mm machine gun, TOW missile
launcher, and 25-mm chain gun.
While the 25-mm chain gun has a
High Explosive Incendiary Tracer
(HEI-T) round with a five-meter
bursting radius, it cannot be used to
deliver high-angle fire because the
fire control system of the BlW is not
set up for it, and the HEI-T ammo
self-destructs at 3000 meters. Because
of this, the HEI-T round would deto-
nate in the air if high-angle fire was
attempted. Another problem is that the
M3/M2 is vulnerable during reload-
ing. All present weapons systems are
unable to fire while any one of them
is being reloaded. Finally, the M3/M2
BM cannot conduct simultaneous en-
gagements because only one of its
weapons can be fired at a time.
In the U.S. Army inventory, we pos-
sess a weapon that can be mounted
easily, quickly, and cheaply on both
the M1 and M3/M2, and which will
meet the need to engage dismounted
troops beyond 800-900 meters with
high angle fire. That weapon is the
Mk 19 MOD 3 grenade machine gun.
The capabilities of this weapon firing
the M430 High Explosive Dual Pur-
pose (HEDP) round are:’
MZ~X effective range area targets .1.... 221 2m
Max effective range point targets ..... 1500m
Bursting radius ...................................... 60m
Casualty radius ..................................... 15m
Kill radius ................................................. 5m
Armor penetration
(high hardness steel) ...................... 51mm
Cydic rate (rounds per minute) ...... 325-375
The Mk 19 MOD 3 grenade ma-
chine gun has several advantages. The
HEDP round is effective against both
personnel and light armored vehicles.
With its high rate of fire, it can place
a heavy volume of fire on target
quickly. Another advantage is that the
Mk 19 can be fired with a regular bal-
listic trajectory, or can be walked onto
a target firing high-angle from max
elevation. Also, the Mk 19 could be
adapted easily for mounting on the
M1 or M3/M2. A fmal advantage is
that the Mk 19 is in production.
The diagram illustrates how the Mk
19 can be modified to the M1 and
M3. These modifications are minor
and use components already in the
Army inventory (see Figure 1).
On the M1, the Mk 19 Pintle
Adapter Assembly can be adapted to
fit in place of the loader’s M240
mount.
34 ARMOR - September-October 7997