“Say Hello to My Little Friend”! That iconic scene with Al Pacino as Tony Montana in the 1983 version of Scarface was more than likely the first introduction for most American moviegoers – those who didn’t serve in the U.S. Armed Forces anyway – to the venerable M203 40mm grenade launcher. After having written articles on both the Precision Grenadier System (PGS) and the XM25 grenade launchers that were intended to replace it in the U.S. military arsenal, I reckon it’s way past time to do a write-up on the ‘203 itself, as it certainly hasn’t gone away yet.
The M203 first entered into service in 1969, during the height of the Vietnam War, intended as a replacement for the M79 grenade launcher AKA “The Blooper.” Unlike the M79, which was a standalone weapon, the ‘203 was designed to be attached underneath the barrel of an existing infantry rifle (first the M16 and later the M4; to my knowledge, it was never attached to an M14.) My 19FortyFive colleague Brent M. Eastwood explains the motivations behind the changeover:
“One drawback [to the M79], though, was that grenadiers during that era carried a pistol instead of an M16, this took a rifle off the battlefield…With that said, the military held a competition for a new under-barrel grenade launcher. The XM203, the precursor to the M203, was cheaper and used the same round as the M79, hence soldiers and marines could still use their M16s in battle.”
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