The Defense Ministry announced Thursday that it had signed a contract with a Nagpur-based private entity to supply 10 lakh of locally designed and developed Multi-Mode Hand Grenade (MMHG) units to the Indian Army at a cost of over Rs. 400 million. These grenades will replace the World War II 36M “Mills Bomb” type hand grenades now used by the military. A look at the features of MMGH and why they are considered an improvement over those currently used.
Grenades # 36 currently in use
- At the beginning of the 20th century, the military around the world began to use fragmentation grenades, the projectiles of which are structured in such a way that they break into small fragments that can cause more damage after the explosion.
- It has been given the special pineapple look because the outer segments and grooves help fragment the carcass.
- On the upgraded designs, the grooves and segments were positioned from the inside and the pineapple outer frame was also kept for better grip.
- For several years now, the Indian Army has used the 36M hand grenade from the WWII era.
- The number refers to a variant of the “Mills Bomb” which are grenades of British origin and these grenades are also shaped like a pineapple.
- These grenades can also be fired with the rifle. The 36Ms were manufactured by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) facilities for the armed forces.
The multimode hand grenade
“Natural fragmentation grenades have long been used by infantry around the world. The Indian Army still uses the 36M, a grenade that also has serious reliability issues and an uneven fragmentation pattern that makes it dangerous even to the launcher. The multimode grenade was developed to overcome these shortcomings. It uses preformed cylindrical mild steel fragments to achieve a uniform distribution, ”
says the official website of the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL) of the DRDO facility, which developed the MMHG.
- The MMHG can be used in two different structures, resulting in two different modes; defensive and offensive.
- The grenades used by forces in India so far have been mainly defensive mode grenades, which means that they must be thrown when the launcher is covered or covered and the target is in an open area and it can be damaged by fragmentation.
- On the other hand, offensive grenades do not fragment and the opponent is injured by the explosion or is stunned while the launcher is safe.
- For MMHG defensive mode, the grenade has a fragmented sleeve and a lethal radius of 10 yards.
- In offensive mode, the grenade is drawn and used primarily for blast and stun effects. In attack, it has a lethal radius of 5 meters from the point of explosion.
MMHG supply
- The procurement section of the Defense Ministry on Thursday signed a contract with Economic Explosive Ltd (EEL is a subsidiary of the Nagpur-based solar group) to supply 10 lakhs of MMHG to the Indian army at a cost of around Rs 409 crore.
- To test the grenade in the field, the DRDO transferred the technology to the company four years ago. The grenade has been tested in various types of conditions and is said to have achieved 99% safety and reliability.
“This is a flagship project showing a public-private partnership under the aegis of the Indian government (DRDO and the Ministry of Defense) enabling” AtmaNirbharta “in advanced munitions technologies and achieves 100% native content “.
The press release of the Ministry of Defense in this regard says
- Authorities said development of the grenade began about 15 years ago, and along with the installation of the DRDO, the military and OFB establishments also played a role in the development.
- According to the company’s website, the product has a shelf life of 15 years from the date of manufacture if stored under normal circumstances.
- The website also says that the product has two delay tubes for added safety and 3,800 uniform shards for increased lethality.
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