The US Army’s Precision Grenadier System effort we told you about last September is underway to handle counter defilade and counter UAS at the squad level.
The PGS shall be a Soldier portable, flat trajectory, semi-automatic, magazine fed, integrated armament system that enables precision engagements to destroy personnel targets in defilade and in the open with increased lethality and precision compared to legacy grenade launchers. The PGS is anticipated to be deployed as a Soldier’s primary weapon system and provide organic close-quarters combat and counter-defilade capabilities through a family of ammunition, providing overmatch to comparable threat grenade launchers in near-peer formations in future operating environments to include urban, woodland, subterranean, and desert, in day, night, or obscured conditions.
The Army is seeking a multi-shot grande launcher which integrates a sophisticated Fire Control System capable of programming rounds along with a family of programmable ammunition.
Family of Ammunition:
a. Counter Defilade Round: Round to precisely and quickly defeat personnel targets in defilade positions.
b. Training Round: Non-pyrotechnic round ballistically similar to the counter defilade round to train the PGS capability.
c. Close Quarters Battle Round: Round to precisely and quickly defeat personnel targets at ranges less than 35 meters.
d. Expanded Capabilities: Ability to expand capabilities is desired with different types of ammo such as:
i. Counter Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Round
ii. Armor-Piercing Round
Naturally, this will also require a power supply.
Additionally, PGS must be lethal from distances of 35m to 500M or longer against unprotected soldiers in both the open and in cover and with a time of flight no greater than 3 seconds out to 500 meters.
It is important to note that the Army has not specified caliber, but rather effect, and has left it open to the various vendors to create the complete system.
Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier partnered with the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology) (ASA(ALT)), to use the xTechSoldier Lethality competition as a platform to interact with industry.
The xTechSoldier Lethality competition consists of three-rounds:
1 Call for concept white papers;
2 Technology Pitch; and
3 Final Proof-of-Concept Demonstration
So far, we’ve seen round 1 which selected five companies based upon their white paper submissions. Each of these small businesses will receive a cash prize of $15,000 and an invitation to advance to Part 2: Technology Pitches where the teams will showcase their innovative concepts for a Precision Grenadier System (PGS):
• American Rheinmetall Munitions, “Squad Support Weapon Achieving Precision Grenadier System Objectives”
• FN America, LLC, “PGS-001”
• Knight Technical Solutions, LLC, “Multipurpose Intelligent Grenade System ‘MIGS’”
• MARS, Inc., “MARS, Inc. 30mm Support Rifle System (SRS)”
• Plumb Precision Products, LLC, “P3 M110 Precision Grenade Launcher”
Up to three companies will be selected from the virtual technology pitch round (round 2) and receive an additional $300,000 each in cash prizes and the opportunity to come back in 6 to 18 months to conduct a final proof-of-concept demonstration (round 3).
Those technology pitches are set to begin today, Aug 29, 2023 and last until Sep 1st.
One final winner may be selected and awarded up to $2M in a follow-on contract or agreement. The target for this phase is Mar 1, 2024 – Mar 31, 2025.
SSD readers may be familiar with the Rheinmetall and Plumb Precision Products system which we have covered in the past.
