Posted on 05/25/2016 6:04:35 AM PDT by C19fan
The United States Army will soon begin distributing a weapon system introduced in 1946. The M3 Carl Gustav rocket launcher will bolster the firepower of rifle platoons, giving them a much-needed edge.
Developed by Bofors (now Saab), the Carl Gustav is a lightweight, man-portable recoilless rifle. Recoilless rifles are like a cross between an artillery gun and a bazooka: While they have propellant at the base of the projectile like a rocket, the propellant doesn't burn beyond the barrel, meaning the projectile flies unpowered like a bullet or artillery shell. Unlike artillery, propellant gasses are directed backwards, counteracting the weapon's recoil and making it "recoilless". The weapon is referred to as a "rifle" due to the spiral rifling in the barrel, which stabilizes the projectile.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
Back Blast Area Clear!!!!!
And don’t fire it from an enclosed room.
Once you fire the first round you’ve given away your position.
I remember the old LAW from the mid 70’s. Not so good against tanks but worked real well on bunkers and such.
I see that they’re air bursting the rounds.The pattern on the ground looks pretty dense,not much chance of not getting hit.
weighs 14 lbs, eh. That’s an improvement on the 90mm Recoilless Rifle we used in VietNam.
My favorite Basic training story. We had an E1 named Gook Joe. Little Vietnamese guy. Not only did we harangue the guy over his name "Gook", but he was a complete idiot. Bad English, bad hygiene, bad attitude. He HATED our big black drill sgt. Drill SGT who was a bad ass 2nd ACR vet, Ranger, Panama/Grenada/1st Gulf War vet, etc etc. .
Anyways, the contentious relationship culminated on the M72a2 Law Range. Good was trying to fire the little training rocket and his squeaky little voice couldn't say "Back Blast Area " ...it was "Black Bastard! Black Bastard!". Of course we knew Gook was trying to say Back Blast Area, but the world of hurt that DS Walker brought down was hilarious to watch. Those two got into it all the time. Every time I see an AT4, etc being prepped...I think to myself "BLACK BASTARD!" and laugh my ass off.
We have had it in the inventory for years!
That is one bad ass old swede...
Oh god that’s to funny!
Sort of a RPG
I would note some of these “appeared” in the Donbas during recent combat.
Yes I remembers them too. Very cool, wish I had one and an M79 grenade launcher too.
I was in field artillery and got trained only on the LAW in basic training. I remember we had “refresher” training on using the LAW when I was in Germany when we went to Graf for artillery (M-109A1, 155mm SP) gunnery.
I fired one in my reserve days back in the early 70’s and as I recall it was a two man operation, one to load and one to fire.
A guy appropriated an M60 at Fort Knox in the mid-70s and rammed the MP station with it. The rumor was that they kept a couple LAWs behind the front desk after that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.