Soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division recently tested a new machine gun optic for the Mk 19 40mm grenade launcher.
The new XM152 Mounted Machine Gun Optic, tested in early June, enhances engagement capabilities in two ways, the Army said.
First it offers a wide field-of-view holographic reticle for rapid, close-range target acquisition, and second, adds a three-times magnifier to extend the effective range and improve accuracy, according to an Army release.
The 10th Mountain soldiers received instruction from the Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, or TACOM, before testing it on the range.
“This optic is important because we need first-round hit probability,” said Tyler Griffeth, a training instructor with TACOM. “A lot of times with the Mark 19 using the iron sights, the soldiers are really focused on the iron sight when we really need the big picture, and that’s the battlefield.
“This now switches it to where the soldier can be more threat-focused, which will increase their first-round hit probability and their overall lethality. Now that technology like this becomes available to the soldier, we’re going to get out there and get more lethal.”
Following familiarization training, soldiers engaged targets on the range with the new optic.
“I feel like with this new optic, I’m very confident in the Mark 19 system, it was much easier to hit the farther ranges and was able to destroy the target as needed,” Sgt. Trever Linberg, a helicopter repairman with the 10th Mountain Division. “With this optic, I could qualify much easier, it took a lot less rounds.”
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
