Want to launch a grenade that can explode over the heads of your enemy even when they are hiding behind an obstacle?
Use a lethal Small Arms Grenade Munitions, or SAGM.
SAGM is a munitions round that aims to provide soldiers with the capability of shooting a 40-mm low-velocity grenade from an M203 or M320 rifle-mounted grenade launcher with the certainty that, if their target is hiding or behind an object, damage will still be inflicted.
The round more than doubles the lethality of the current 40-mm grenade against defilade targets. It also does not require the user to carry extra weapon accessories, reducing the Soldier’s load.
The airburst function is similar to the XM25 CDTE which has an onboard laser system to determine the distance to the target, but SAGM is considered complementary to the XM25 rather than competing against it, as the XM25 provides direct fire while the M320 fires indirectly.
Engineers integrated sensors and logic devices to scan and filter the environment and then autonomously airburst the fuse without needing to be told to by the firer.
SAGM enables soldiers to accurately incapacitate personnel targets in defilade at ranges between 50 to 500 meters. The round is engineered with three firing modes of airburst, point detonation, and self-destruct. A successful demonstration occurred in November 2013, with first issuing to soldiers planned by July 2015.
Soldiers’ I’ve talked to at Ft. Riley are very excited about the new SAGM airburst capacity. “Now we can hit targets behind obstacles”, said Pv2 Smith, an infantryman with the 1st Infantry Division.
“That’s great, a grenade munition that can locate even concealed targets, this innovation will be a boon for soldiers in the battle field”, said Goldman Avery Richard of Facebook.
Of course Goldman is absolutely correct said one Infantry officer at Ft. Benning, GA, who added that the new round should be deployed in late 2014 or 2015. This officer asked we not use his name in this report to protect his friends and family. We respect that. See report: Social Networking sites and the military https://groundreport.com/Social-networking-sites-and-the-military/