Rheinmetall’s Highly-Advanced Multi-Mission Rifle has come quite a ways since I first mentioned it during a visit to Australia in 2022.
Originally referred to as the Squad Support Weapon, this semiautomatic 40mm shoulder fired weapon is box fed is capable of firing common low velocity as medium velocity ammo. It features a 5 round box magazine and the rounds are programmable via IR for desired distance until burst.
While many are concerned about the weight of a 40mm system, this offers one serious advanatge over other current individual grenade launchers, compatibility with all current 40mm grenades. Additionally, now that they’ve added a breach loading capability, rounds which are too long for the M203 or an semiauto action can be loaded one at a time into the HAMMR.
Although it hasn’t been formally put forward as a candidate for the US Army’s Precision Grenadier System program, it’s definitely a contender. Since the actual PGS program solicitations is still a few years out, Rheinmetall still has time to secure a US partner and make further refinements.
The ability to fire a heavier weight grenade is a big advantage for improving lethality.
Current 40x46mm is around 180-185g grenade.
40x51mm MV is 230g per the most recent chart I saw.
Much closer to the grenade weight of the 40x53mm HV then the 40×46.
This also gives more design space for a potential future grenade that opts for larger tungsten fragments as opposed to current small steel fragments in order to better defeat soft armor / achieve 12″ penetration / better efficacy against carbon fiber drones.