Rafael's New Door-Breaching Rifle Grenade

Rafael's New Door-Breaching Rifle Grenade
Aviation Week's DTI | Joris Janssen Lok | November 06, 2007


For the U.S. Army, kicking down doors will become blowing them down now that the service has ordered $52 million worth of Simon door-breaching rifle grenades from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd of Israel.

In a statement issued today, Rafael says that the Simon, or GREM (grenade, rifle, entry munition) as it is known in the U.S., is a lightweight, rifle-launched grenade specially adapted to breaching steel or wooden doors from a stand-off distance. It may be fired from a variety of rifles using regular bullets.

Says Rafael: "The Simon (GREM) is designed to breach a door or to enable breaking an entry into a building or an enclosed area, while posing minimum collateral damage or risk to the gunner and to troops following him. The warhead has a special dome shape and its explosion generates a shock wave which blasts the door and causes it to yield."

The Simon (GREM) is a member of Rafael's family of shoulder-launched breaching munitions, together with the Matador family that has been developed and produced in conjunction with DND of Germany.

There is a Matador WB (PZF-90 / Mauler WB) for breaching a variety of walls enabling a mobility corridor for troops in the urban warfare environment, a Matador MP, multi-purpose breaching for destroying bunkers and light armored vehicles and a Matador AS (PZF-90 / Mauler AS) for striking enemy forces located within structures.

Both the Simon (GREM) and the Matador family can be fired from inside enclosures, Rafael says.


Article at: http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,155689,00.html