Barrett, the firearms manufacturer best known for its absurdly powerful sniper rifle, the Barrett M82, is now making a grenade launcher—or, as it’s officially called, the MARS Precision Grenadier. As the name suggests, Barrett isn’t going solo on this one. It has teamed up with Montana-based firearms R&D company MARS, Inc.
The Barrett MARS Precision Grenadier System is a U.S. military requirement. It falls under the Squad Support Rifle System (SSRS) category. Here’s the thing: I’ve used the M16 with the M203, and there’s a certain reassurance in knowing the grenade launcher is a support weapon—a secondary tool, not the main course. But with the SSRS, the soldier’s primary weapon is the grenade launcher. That means, along with lobbing explosives over walls, they’re also expected to handle direct engagements.
This is where the MARS Precision Grenadier stands out. It’s fully capable of close-quarters combat—provided the soldier has the right rounds. And yes, that includes what are essentially shotgun shells. The available ordnance will be varied, ranging from counter-UAS rounds to smoke, marking rounds, and even armor-piercing grenades.
Naturally, being a grenade launcher, ammo capacity is limited. Each magazine holds just five rounds. However, if the situation demands—say, a smoke round is needed—the soldier can manually load an individual round without swapping the entire mag. Oh, and it fires 30mm programmable airburst rounds. An optic mounted on the Picatinny rail measures the distance to the target and programs the round accordingly. Meanwhile, the soldier can choose where in the flight path the round will detonate.
Barrett has leveraged its expertise in recoil management—honed from decades of handling .50 cal monsters—to make the SSRS manageable. A built-in recoil system, featuring a reciprocating barrel and damper, tames the kick to roughly that of an M4 rifle.
All told, this “rifle” measures 33.9 inches (861 mm) in length, with a 12-inch (305 mm) barrel, and weighs 13.9 lbs (6.3 kg)—hefty compared to an M16A2 with an M203. If Barrett wins the Precision Grenadier System contract, we’ll likely see adoption in three to four years. So, yeah. First, there was a grenade launcher that thought it was a sniper rifle, and now, we have a grenade lobbing firearm that wants to be a rifle.
And no, you won’t find this at your local Walmart or Kroger.
Images: Barrett/YouTube (TFBTV Show Time).
Story via YouTube (TFBTV Show Time).
