The US armed forces continue to get rid of their surplus weapons by supplying them to the Ukrainian army. According to the Ukrainian Military Pages portal, 81 tons of various military equipment were delivered in one of the latest Boeing 747 transport aircraft, including 40-mm Mk 19 (Mark 19) automatic grenade launchers of the third modification.
Information about this was disclosed by one of the Twitter users who drew attention to the identification code NSN 1010-01-490-9697 printed on the boxes on board the aircraft. According to the NATO Supplies classifier, it designates grenade launchers of this type.
Mark 19 was developed more than half a century ago and managed to fight in Vietnam, but the version that appeared in 1976 left for Ukraine. The aiming range is 1500 meters, and the maximum is 2200 meters. The rate of fire is up to 400 rounds per minute.
Fragmentation and multi-purpose fragmentation-armor-piercing grenades are used. The latter, allegedly, are capable of piercing up to 50 mm of armor and disabling manpower with ready-made striking elements within a radius of 5 meters. In addition to the United States, ammunition for it is produced in other countries, for example in Greece and Turkey.
For use in the dark, the "nineteenth" can be equipped with a night sight without illumination.
The mass of the grenade launcher itself is 35.3 kg and the machine weighs even more than 20 kg and its lightweight version weighs 14 kg. Military experts believe that the Mark 19 is significantly inferior to the Russian AGS-40 "Balkan".
Interestingly, Ukraine has repeatedly announced the organization of the release of clones of AGS-17 "Flame" called KBA-117 and KBA-119, as well as ammunition for them. However, if the production is carried out, then in very small quantities, that's why the APU is so happy with not the freshest overseas gifts.
Alexey Brusilov