Good things come in lightweight, 84mm packages: Following its fielding of the M3 MAAWS last year, the US Army has announced its decision to sole-source 1,111 improved lightweight M3E1 MAAWS recoilless rifles from Saab Dynamics, in a listing at FBO.gov. The new weapon is based on the Saab Dynamics M4 variant of the venerable Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle, which improves over the previous M3 by reducing weight by 30% (22 pounds down to 15.4 pounds) and length by 14% (1,100mm down to 950mm). The M3E1 is expected to be type classified as the M3A1 Multi-Role Anti-Armor/Anti-Personnel Weapon System (MAAWS).Back in the day, when I was in the walking-around Army ('73-75) we had recoilless rifles in the inventory. I actually got to fire an M20, 75 mm recoilless rifle at Fort Riley during pre-commissioning training. It was a cool rifle, deadly and noisy as hell, and after that I never saw one in use.
The Army at that time was smitten with rocketry and the old M72A1 LAW rocket was ubiquitous during my early days as a platoon leader. The infantry also had the M47 Dragon system in several variants. Of course, the most iconic rocket grenade in use worldwide is the old Russian RPG-7, the anti-armor weapon of peasants worldwide.
I had thought that the recoilless rifle had gone the way of bolt-action rifles and steel-pot helmets, a fond memory of an old warrior, but it seems that what is old is new again.
That should give the light infantry a good anti-armor punch. It should be useful for vehicles, bunkers, buildings, anything that needs several pounds of high explosive remodeling. In the anti-personnel, I bet that a buckshot or flechette round would be devastating.
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