HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—Nammo will qualify later this year a shoulder-fired munition called the M72-FFE that can be shot without a “back blast,” allowing it to be deployed from inside buildings.
Nammo Director of Growth Works Rob Willhelm told Defense Daily here Thursday when a traditional M72 round is fired, the rocket motor burns as much as a pound of propellant in 12 milliseconds. That produces a lot of gas and pressure, Willhelm said, and that pressure has to be released somewhere, usually out the back of a shoulder-fired weapon. This prevents the munition from being deployed indoors because the tremendous force from the back blast can destroy buildings and injure people inside, he said.
At the Association of United States Army (AUSA) Global Force Symposium and Exhibition, Willhelm said Nammo substituted a counter mass for the rocket motor on the M72-FFE (fire from enclosure), eliminating the back blast. In addition to reduced back blast, the M72-FFE features “dramatically reduced” firing noise with smoke and flash completely eliminated, with no loss in muzzle velocity, Nammo said on its website.
Willhelm compared the M72-FFE technology to that found on hobbyist water rockets, where air is pumped into a two-liter bottled filled with water, until the pressure is released as thrust, sending the water rocket into the sky. The M72-FFE is still under development, he said.
The reduced back blast also provides a safety feature, Willhelm said, allowing warfighters to avoid exposure to gunfire by having to run outside to shoot a traditional M72. The M72-FFE is deployed by the M72 Light Anti-Tank Weapon (LAW), a single-use, shoulder-fired, man-portable and light anti-tank rocket. Light infantry and special operations forces use the weapon, which can be used against light armor and destroy structures and vehicles.