M226 Grenade Launcher with Reinforced Tube.

Abstract

When the M226 Launcher was fired from the M60 tank, short rounds were experienced approximately 23% of the time. It was also observed that cracked launching tubes occurred with short ranges, but the cause of cracking was not known. Time and funding limitations did not permit an investigation to verify the cause of cracking. Analysis of damaged tubes indicated that cracking resulted from overstressing the wall of the launch tube, and that reinforcing this area by wrapping with glass filament-reinforced polyester film tape would solve the problem. Tubes wrapped with the reinforced tape were subjected to a variety of weather conditions and test fired thereafter. All tubes performed satisfactorily and the range requirements were met in all cases. It was concluded that this type of reinforcement should be usable as a retrofit to components already purchased.

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1975
Accession Number
ADA017752

Entities

People

  • James E. Norton

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Filaments
  • Grenade Launchers
  • Grenades
  • Launch Tubes
  • Launchers
  • Launching
  • Munitions
  • Polyesters
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Reinforced Composite Materials
  • Software Engineering
  • ballistics.