A belt-fed grenade machine gun may sound deadly enough, but the Army wants to make the Mk 19 even more lethal, with improvements that could be fielded as early as 2018.
The goal? Improve the weapon’s muzzle velocity, cyclic rate (rounds per minute), reliability, ease of assembly, and accuracy.
The Army is pursuing this laundry list of objectives separately, with plans to later combine them into one upgrade package. Testing is expected in fiscal 2017, which starts Oct. 1, with fielding possible the next year.
“Each improvement is at a different stage of development,” said Peter Rowland, spokesman for Project Manager Soldier Weapons. “The Army is planning to produce and field the upgrade as one kit. This will allow for efficiencies in scheduling and application of improvements at one time in lieu of separate efforts.” more
