Grenade launcher

A grenade launcher refers to a weapon designed to project specially-designed grenades at ranges far greater than the average soldier could, with superior accuracy and velocity. The term encompasses a broad array of weapons, from small, hand-held launchers to crew-served automatic weapons.

M79 grenade launcher
One of the earliest United States grenade launcher designs, built around the 40mm grenade. Utilizing the High-Low propulsion system, the M79 allows the operator to deliver high explosive rounds at a range of hundreds of meters, while its rugged design - consisting of just five major parts, a receiver, fore-end, barrel, sight, and stock - offers excellent reliability. The one drawback is that the grenade launcher is single-shot only, reducing its rate of fire and precluding a sustained volume of fire. However, it is quite compact, especially with the stock sawed off, while the straightforward optics, consisting of a fixed blade sight on the front and a folding leaf sight on the rear, enable accurate fire with just pointing and shooting. These qualities kept it in use well into the late 21st century, showing that simplicity is beauty. 


 * For the unique grenade rifle found in Fallout: New Vegas, see: Thump-Thump.
 * For the Mercenary Pack pre-order exclusive add-on grenade rifle in Fallout: New Vegas, see: Mercenary's grenade rifle.
 * For Lonesome Road's grenade rifles, see Great Bear grenade rifle and Red Victory grenade rifle.

Pump-action grenade launcher


A pump-action weapon with a tubular magazine holding four 40mm grenades, the grenade launcher is an excellent tool for delivering explosives over long distances. Leaf iron sights similar to the grenade rifle are mounted on it. The front sight is a fixed square notch.

While the feed system makes the launcher significantly heavier than a standard grenade rifle, the launcher's body makes an excellent platform for experimental energy weapon conversions.

Automatic grenade launcher


 The automatic grenade launcher, sometimes referred to as a grenade machinegun, is a belt-fed, blowback-operated, air-cooled automatic weapon designed to lay down a heavy volume of explosive ordnance and support infantry and vehicle operations. Designed for use as a crew-served weapon, the automatic grenade launcher was intended for use against a variety of targets ranging from infantry and light vehicles to fortifications and other materiel. The sheer weight of the weapon and bulk of the ammunition limited its versatility, until the advent of power armor. Since then, many units were converted for use on foot, rather than from a tripod.

U.S. automatic grenade launchers were manufactured in two major variants, accepting 25mm and 40mm grenades, together with a variety of additional equipment, such as an electronic fire control system (though most of these systems have failed in the decades after the war, becoming little more than dead weight). 


 * For the unique grenade machinegun found in Fallout: New Vegas, see: Mercy.

Grenade pistol


Single Shot Grenade Pistol. Heavily modified flare-gun, chambered to fire a 40mm grenade.

Combat grenade launcher

 * Gameplay article: Grenade launcher (Fallout 3)

A grenade launcher that looks exactly like a combat shotgun but used frag grenades instead of shotgun shells for ammunition.

Heckler


A semi-automatic magazine-fed grenade launcher.