As far as the design of the basic hand grenade goes, "The basic technology is almost 100 years old," said Richard Lauch, a Picatinny Arsenal engineer. Lauch, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, has been on a mission to modernize the hand grenade so that it is safer as well as easier to use and cheaper to produce.
The current grenade fuzs design only allows for a right-handed user to throw it in the upright position. A lefty has to hold the grenade upside down to safely pull the pin. Also, the current fuse consists of an explosive train that is in-line from production through usage; thus, it is always "armed."
In a grenade, the explosive train is the sequence of events that begins when the handle is released. That initiates a mechanical strike on a primer, which ignites a slow-burning fuse to provide time for the grenade to be thrown before the fuse sets off the primary explosive. In an "in-line" explosive train, the sequence is always in-place and ready. Until it is removed, a pin in the handle is the only thing that prevents the sequence from being initiated.
Lauch believes his design is safer because a lefty or righty holds the grenade no differently, and because the grenade can only be armed by rotating the explosive chain in line. Lauch's design includes a safety that requires two distinct actions to arm the grenade. The first motion ensures that users have a firm grip and control of the lever before they can arm it.
The second motion "arms" the grenade by rotating the explosive train in-line. If the tactical situation were to change, the soldier just reverses the second step and the grenade is re-safed. Currently, re-safing a grenade requires trying to reinsert the sometimes-deformed safety pin, which is not easily done.
Another reason Lauch was determined to make an improvement was that soldiers have been known to make their own modifications to grenades when they know there is potential for an accident. "I know that if anyone ever got on my chopper with a grenade, the crew ensured they all taped the pins in with duct tape so there was no room for an accident," Lauch said.
"There is still no documented requirement from the field and there has been a resistance from the user to accept a radical departure from the old design," Gorman said. Currently, there are only 12 prototypes in inventory and further research is still needed. Reducing the number of critical defects to be inspected reduces the amount of time spent on inspections and testing.
