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M79 grenade launcher
The M79 grenade launcher is a shoulder-fired standalone breech-loading 40mm launcher developed during the Vietnam War. It uses a low-recoil 40mm grenade round developed as part of project NIBLICK, a sub-project of the SALVO (which does not stand for anything) and SPIW (Special Purpose Individual Weapon) advanced weapon trials run by the US military. This round used the high-low recoil mitigation system developed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, allowing a large projectile to be fired with manageable recoil. The result would be a grenade round with greater range, accuracy and convenience than a rifle grenade, while remaining more portable than a light mortar.
SPIW was intended to produce a combination of a flechette-firing rifle and a multi-shot grenade launcher, but while technical problems dogged the main project, one of Springfield's grenade launcher prototypes, a single-shot break-open launcher called S-3 that resembled a giant shotgun, showed promise. Its competitor, the three-shot magazine-fed T148 (not related to the XM148 grenade launcher) proved too complex and too unreliable, and the Army chose a refined version of the S-3, the S-5, as their new weapon, the XM79. With the further addition of a new sight, the weapon was adopted as the M79 in December 1960, thus beginning the curious tendency of American advanced rifle projects to produce grenade launchers instead of rifles. This was later continued by the SPIW program's M203, the OICW program's XM25, and the OICW Increment 1 (XM8) program's M320.
It was well-liked in Vietnam where it was regarded as "the platoon leader's artillery" and its distinctive thoomp report led to nicknames like "blooper" and "thumper."
While the M79 is relatively light, weighing just six and a half pounds loaded, it is 29 inches long, meaning that it had to be issued as a primary weapon to dedicated grenadiers. As a result, over time it was largely replaced by the underbarrel M203 in service, though it is still used today in niche roles due to its superior accuracy and range. The weapon is sometimes seen with its stock and / or barrel sawed down to make it handier, though this limits its accuracy. It is known that American DEVGRU operators use a pistol-length version fitted with a reflex sight, affectionately known as the "pirate gun."
A similar tube magazine-fed pump-action weapon, the China Lake Launcher, was developed for use by Navy SEALS.
The M79 grenade launcher and variants can be seen in the following films, television series, video games, and anime used by the following actors:
Specifications
(1961-present)
Type: Grenade Launcher
Caliber: 40x46mm (M79), 37mm (Spike's Tactical Thumper)
Capacity: 1 (breech loaded)
Fire Modes: Single shot
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Green Berets | U.S. Special Forces | 1968 | ||
| Apocalypse Now | Herb Rice | The Roach | With tiger-stripe paint scheme | 1979 |
| Uncommon Valor | LRRP Team member | 1983 | ||
| Missing In Action | Chuck Norris | Col. James Braddock | 1984 | |
| Missing In Action | Vietnamese Assassin | 1984 | ||
| Wheels of Fire | Scourge's Men | 1985 | ||
| Latino | Contras soldier | 1985 | ||
| The Park is Mine | Tommy Lee Jones | Mitch | 1985 | |
| The Park is Mine | Jong Soo Park | Tran Chan Dinh | 1985 | |
| Platoon | Andrew B. Clark | Tubbs | 1986 | |
| Platoon | US Army soldiers | 1986 | ||
| King Kong Lives | US Army soldiers | 1986 | ||
| Demon of Paradise | Soldier | 1987 | ||
| Hamburger Hill | Don James | McDaniel | 1987 | |
| Hamburger Hill | Tim Quill | Pvt. Joe Beletsky | 1987 | |
| Full Metal Jacket | U.S. Marines | 1987 | ||
| Casualties of War | Michael J. Fox | PFC Max Eriksson | 1989 | |
| Casualties of War | Don Harvey | Cpl. Thomas E. Clark | 1989 | |
| The Siege of Firebase Gloria | Wings Hauser | Cpl. DiNardo | 1989 | |
| The Siege of Firebase Gloria | R. Lee Ermey | Sgt. Maj. Bill Hafner | 1989 | |
| Born on the Fourth of July | A US marine | 1989 | ||
| Bullet in the Head | ARVN soldiers | 1990 | ||
| Marked for Death | Tom Wright | Charles | 1990 | |
| American Ninja 4: The Annihilation | Jody Abrahams | Pango | 1990 | |
| American Ninja 4: The Annihilation | Dwayne Alexandre | Carl Brackston | 1990 | |
| Terminator 2: Judgement Day | Arnold Schwarzenegger | T-800 | With & without shattered stock | 1991 |
| Hard Target | Arnold Vosloo | Van Cleef | 1993 | |
| Never Say Die | A police officer | 1994 | ||
| Soldier Boyz | Vinh Moc's soldier | 1995 | ||
| The Walking Dead | Vonte Sweet | Pfc. Joe Brooks | 1995 | |
| The Rage | Tiani Warden | Cyndi | 1997 | |
| Wild Zero | Makoto Inamiya | Captain | 1999 | |
| Going Back | Jaimz Woolvett | Tex Atkins | 2001 | |
| We Were Soldiers | Blake Heron | Spc. Galen Bungum | 2002 | |
| We Were Soldiers | U.S. 1st Cavalry soldiers | 2002 | ||
| Hellboy | Seen in arsenal case | 2004 | ||
| Typhoon | ROKN UDT/SEAL commandos | 2005 | ||
| Watchmen | Jeffrey Dean Morgan | The Comedian | With smoke rounds | 2009 |
| The Marine 2 | Arms dealer | 2009 | ||
| The Expendables | Dolph Lundgren | Gunnar Jansen | With laser pointer | 2010 |
| MacGruber | Von Cunth's man | 2010 | ||
| Machine Gun Preacher | LRA troops | 2011 | ||
| I Am Number Four | Teresa Palmer | Number Six | 2011 | |
| Battleground | Bob Cymbalski | Texas | 2012 | |
| Ragnarok | Sofia Helin | Elisabeth | As improvised harpoon | 2013 |
| Ragnarok | Nicolai Cleve Broch | Allan | 2013 | |
| Mad Max: Fury Road | Jon Iles | The Ace | 2015 | |
| Hardcore Henry | Oleg Poddubniy | Yuri | 2016 | |
| the Post | U.S. Marines | 2017 | ||
| Kong: Skull Island | Shea Whigham | Captain Earl Cole | 2017 | |
| John Wick: Chapter 2 | Seen in armory | |||
| Malay Regiment | 17th Royal Malay Regiment troopers | |||
| Communist guerillas | ||||
| Extraction | Chris Hemsworth | Tyler Rake | 2020 | |
| Birds of Prey | Margot Robbie | Harley Quinn | 2020 |
Television
| Title | Actor | Character | Note | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tour of Duty | US Army soldiers | 1987 - 1989 | ||
| Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles | Summer Glau | Cameron Phillips | "Dungeons and Dragons" | 2008 - 2009 |
| Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles | Brian Austin Green | Derek Reese | "Mouse Trap" | 2008 - 2009 |
| KochiKame | Mokomichi Hayami | Keiichi Nakagawa | (Ep. 08) | 2009 |
| Iris - Season 1 | Seen in IRIS base | 2009 | ||
| Ultimate Weapons | Soldiers | "Firepower"; archive footage | 2009 - 2011 | |
| Fear the Walking Dead - Season 3 | Daniel Sharman | Troy Otto | "Brother’s Keeper" (S3E12) | 2017 |
| Frank Dillane | Nicholas Clark | "This Land Is Your Land" (S3E13) | ||
| The Continental: From the World of John Wick | seen in armory; "Brothers in Arms" (S1E01) | 2023 |
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Mods | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resident Evil 2 | Grenade Launcher | With Pistol Grip | 1998 | |
| The Operative: No One Lives Forever | 2000 | |||
| Resident Evil Survivor | Grenade Gun | 2000 | ||
| Fallout Tactics | Grenade Launcher | 2001 | ||
| Max Payne | Grenade Launcher | 2001 | ||
| Resident Evil: Code Veronica | Grenade Launcher | 2001 | ||
| The World Is Not Enough | GL 40 | 2001 | ||
| The Getaway | 2002 | |||
| Vietcong | 2003 | |||
| Postal 2 | Grenade Launcher | Fires M26 hand grenades | 2003 | |
| Battlefield Vietnam | w/ camo paint | 2004 | ||
| Time Crisis: Crisis Zone | "Grenade" | Depicted with a rather slow bullet velocity | 2004 | |
| Driver 3 | 2004 | |||
| Shellshock Nam '67 | 2004 | |||
| Conflict: Vietnam | 2004 | |||
| Cold Fear | M79 | Sawed-off barrel and stock | 2005 | |
| Vietcong 2 | 2005 | |||
| Elite Warriors Vietnam | 2005 | |||
| Driver: Parallel Lines | 2006 | |||
| Scarface: The World is Yours | 2006 | |||
| Time Crisis IV | "Grenade" | Sawed-off barrel, with pistol grip | Appears as a weapon icon in arcade mode | 2006 |
| Eternal Damnation | "M79 GrenadeLauncher" | 2006 | ||
| Team Fortress 2 | "Loch and Load" | With over/under double barrels | Erroneously holds 3 rounds at a time | 2007 |
| 7.62 High Calibre | 2008 | |||
| Far Cry 2 | 2008 | |||
| Xenus 2: White Gold | 2008 | |||
| Counter-Strike Online | M79 Saw-Off | Shortened barrel & cut-off stock; classified as a pistol; comes with a gold-plated variant | 2009 | |
| Left 4 Dead 2 | Grenade Launcher | Optional laser sight | 2009 | |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | Thumper | 2009 | ||
| Killing Floor | 2009 | |||
| 1968 Tunnel Rats (VG) | 2009 | |||
| Terminator Salvation | with M4-style stock | 2009 | ||
| Wheelman | Grenade Launcher | Shown to be muzzle loaded | 2009 | |
| Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam | Featured with a tiger-stripe finish | 2010 | ||
| Fallout: New Vegas | Grenade Rifle | Extended barrel available as an upgrade | 2010 | |
| Payday: The Heist | GL40 | 2011 | ||
| Uncharted: Golden Abyss | M79 | w/ pistol grip | 2011 | |
| Jagged Alliance: Back in Action | M79 | 2012 | ||
| Medal of Honor: Warfighter | M79 | Cut-down "pirate pistol" configuration | 2012 | |
| Project Reality: Falklands | Firing HE and smoke rounds | 2012 | ||
| Project Reality: Vietnam | Firing HE, smoke, and buckshot rounds | 2012 | ||
| Ravaged | 2012 | |||
| Grand Theft Auto V | Compact Grenade Launcher | Sawed-off | 2013 | |
| Payday 2 | GL40 | 2013 | ||
| Far Cry 4 | 2014 | |||
| World of Guns: Gun Disassembly | M79 | 2014 | ||
| Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades | M79 Thumper | 2016 | ||
| Shadow Warrior 2 | One Trick Pony | 2016 | ||
| Mafia III | 2016 | |||
| Rising Storm 2: Vietnam | 2017 | |||
| Far Cry 5 | M-79 | Sawed-off | 2018 | |
| Fallout 76 | M79 Grenade Launcher | Sawed-off | Stock and barrel can be restored | 2018 |
| Far Cry New Dawn | M-79 | Sawed-off | 2019 | |
| Resident Evil 2 (2019) | "GM 79" | Pistol-grip; full-length stock and leaf sight can be attached as upgrades | 2019 | |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | M79 | 2020 | ||
| Far Cry 6 | M-79 | Sawed-off | 2021 | |
| Marauders (video game) | "Mini Thumper" | Sawed-off | Added in United Allies update in 2023 | 2022 |
Anime
| Title | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Magic M-66 | Spec-Ops Commandos | 1987 | |
| Appleseed | Deunan Knute | Fitted with red dot scope | 1988 |
| The Abashiri Family | Kichiza Abashiri | "Explosion of violence!! We don't have justice!" (E01) | 1991 |
| New Dominion Tank Police | Criminal | 1993 | |
| Cowboy Bebop | Henchman | 1998 - 1999 | |
| Cowboy Bebop | Outlaw | 1998 - 1999 | |
| Black Lagoon | Revy | 2006 | |
| When They Cry: Rei | Kasai | 2009 | |
| Coppelion | Kanon Ozu | 2013 | |
| Lupin Zero | Gaucho | Ep. "Young Lupin Calls Himself "the Third" | 2022 - 2023 |
Animation
| Title | Voice Actor | Characters | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Love, Death & Robots - Season 3 | seen in armory; "Kill Team Kill" (S3E05) | 2022 |