Posts
Looking up stuff to figure out 40mm smoke grenades led me to look at smoke hand grenades.
The US adopted the AN/M8 back in 1940.
Basically the same as the AN/M7 tear gas grenade from 1935 but burning HC (hexachloroethane) smoke instead of CN (chloroacetophenone). M7A2 and M7A3 burn CS (2-chlorobenzalmalonnitrile).
The M8 was the standard white smoke grenade until replaced by the M83 in 1994, which burns for less time, but emits thicker smoke.
You need to read the markings to tell the M8 from the M83. The M7 is a different color, but externally the same.
The M18 (1942) is the colored smoke version of the M8 and is externally identical, except for the markings and the color shade being painted on the top. We still issue the AN/M18!
We changed our fragmentation grenade five times (or three times depending on how you count it) while we kept the same smoke grenades. Mk II "Pineapple" to M26 to M61 to M33 to M67; though an argument can be made that the differences between the M26 and M61 and M33 and M57 are so small as to not really be a "change."
That tells me we got the smoke grenade so right we couldn't really improve it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
You are a guest here when you comment. This is my soapbox, not yours. Be polite. Inappropriate comments will be deleted without mention. Amnesty period is expired.
Do not go off on a tangent, stay with the topic of the post. If I can't tell what your point is in the first couple of sentences I'm flushing it.
If you're trying to comment anonymously: You can't. Log into your Google account.
If you can't comprehend this, don't comment; because I'm going to moderate and mock you for wasting your time.