My new Rocket Launcher, M72 LAW with M190 adapter

Kids these days...

cool i have one just like it except i must have got lucky mine doesnt have the holes or the graffiti. mine also did not come with the conversion kit but it did come with a dummy rocket.

You know, I was just idly thinking of how cool it would be to have an AT4 9mm subcaliber trainer with the correct 9mm tracer ammo for it.

I have a spent LAW launcher from my days in the USMC. I was MOS 0351, anti-tank assault.

There is only one trigger, which is the long black rubber covered part in front of the rear sight. The other mechanism in front of that is for arming/disarming the launcher. Out was armed, in was safe. The third mechanism in front of that is for collapsing the launcher.

To fire the LAW, you would pull the rear pin, dropping the rear cover. The sling and front cover would then come off. Grasp the tube with two hands, one at each end of the tube, then extend the tube. The front and rear sights would then pop up.

You would lay the launcher on your shoulder and aim using the sights. When ready to fire you would pull the arming switch forward. When aimed, you would depress the trigger after ensuring your back blast area was safe!

* Remember watching RAMBO shoot one inside the cockpit of a Huey at a Russian helicopter??? Not gonna happen!! *

If the LAW failed to fire you would have to try to re-fire. If that failed you put the safety on, by pushing it back. You would then depress the mechanism in front of the arming switch, collapse the tube, extend the tube and go through the firing process again.

If you armed the LAW, but then made the decision not to fire you made sure the safety was on, collapsed the tube, making sure you depressed the front and rear sights. Once the tube was collapsed you re-installed the sling.

???

Where does this kid get all his money/military toys? Unbelievable!

You know, I was just idly thinking of how cool it would be to have an AT4 9mm subcaliber trainer with the correct 9mm tracer ammo for it.

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Hahaha, I remember when I was in Basic at Ft. Benning shooting one of those.

"(Expletive deleted) excellent Private! You just wasted an entire (expletive deleted)commie armored battalion!"

Good times.

That's what I was thinking of, too. How slow that tracer went, then the THWACK when you hit whatever dilapidated old junker they had sitting out on that range!

A Co 2/54, 4th Platoon, May-September 2005. The M-134 range was a "good" day, one of the few in Infantry School.

The manual - http://www.scribd.com/doc/13775407/Rocket-Launcher-m190 - leads me to believe the piece of metal in the installation parts kit you were looking at might be "primer door designed to hinge"

I'm trying to remember how we loaded the practice rockets, but can't for the life of me exactly how it was done. I do believe the door was hinged, because it didn't take long to reload the LAW and we did not use any special tools.

Devonai said:

A Co 2/54, 4th Platoon, May-September 2005. The M-134 range was a "good" day, one of the few in Infantry School.

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M203 was a better day for me, I shot expert rifle and got to shoot live 203. Max PT tests got to shoot live AT4.

Although five years later in the Guard I did get to shoot live AT4. For 'safety' reasons they made us shoot at the 500 meter armored targets at the range. Unsurprisingly for a weapon whose sights only go to its maximum effective range of 300 m, we mostly missed.

2nd Platoon, F Co, 1/19 here. August 2006.

I was in the infantry (as a medic) back in the mid-60s when the LAW was just coming online. There were problems with the initial issue items...
When you pulled the casing out to arm the thing, a long wire would extend along with the tube. This was actually the triggering wire.
When guys went to position the the device for firing, you'd naturally point it at the ground at some area in front of you and then lean your helmet over to aim.
The helmet would hit the wire... And the rocket would go into the ground 15-20 feet in front of you.
Usually it didn't arm in that distance....

I believe they corrected this on subsequent models. We had the empty tubes all over the place back then, and we used to carry them on field problems to "simulate" shooting at the enemy, which was usually our sister armored battalion.

What is the legality on the LAW? Looks like a lot of fun!

The LAW is actually making a comeback, because it light, easy to carry and easy to shoot.

I really don't understand why we cant just adopt the RPG7

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It's called the NIH Syndrome (Not Invented Here) in weapons procurement circles.

rc

rcmodel said:

It's called the NIH Syndrome (Not Invented Here) in weapons procurement circles.

rc

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It's really a shame too, RPG-7's are about the most cost effective way of making something that offends the average infantry man disappear. (Outside a radio for air support or arty strike).

We spend too much money on gadgets.

RPG is not adopted because of the stigma of it. It is a former Soviet Union weapon, and also in the hands of many of the enemy the soldiers face.

That it is very effective and inexpensive doesn't change that.

Also a large part of what the US military uses stems from big business with military contracts in the United States. Using something foreign and not throwing military contractors a bone to create something more complicated, a lot more expensive, and not much more effective, would be contrary to the norm.
To be fair a lot of companies exist trying to fill military contracts, and part of many deals is they won't sell designs they create for the military to anyone else, so when the military cancels a contract they get screwed stuck with something they cannot offload to anyone else or another military.
With that in mind they need the contracts they can get.
In turn our military needs a healthy number of competing bidders in the USA, if they don't throw different ones a bone here and there they will start dropping in number and you won't have many bidders to provide for the national defense.



That said some of the US soldiers in Afghanistan have people working with them that do use RPGs.
Check out this video with "Spanky". A bit of a wildcard.
You will see him firing multiple times with his RPG-7.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPApDTUb7QM