An Army National Guard member from the 297th Infantry Regiment fires an MK19 automatic grenade launcher during a weapons qualification exercise at the Camp Guernsey Joint Training Center in Guernsey, Wyo., on April 13, 2023. (Joseph Burns/U.S. Army)
The Army is seeking contractors capable of turning the Vietnam-era 40 mm belt-fed MK19 automatic grenade launcher into a drone killer.
The service, which posted a request notice on the government’s contracting site on Nov. 18, hopes to pair proximity-sensing fuse technology with a programmable air-burst cartridge capable of knocking out small drones.
The system must fit into existing weapons platforms, fire control systems and remote weapons stations to detect, track, target and defeat enemy aerial threats, the proposal says.
The initiative is the latest Defense Department effort to create or retrofit existing platforms to counter the growing battlefield drone threat.
The MK19 launcher, fired from a tripod or vehicle mount, weighs about 75 pounds and primarily fires high-explosive M430 grenades that come in belts of 32 or 48, according to Army Training and Doctrine Command’s worldwide equipment guide. The grenades can kill anyone within a 15-foot radius and wound anyone within 50 feet, the guide says.
The MK19 can also punch through 2 inches of rolled homogeneous armor, which means the destruction of most infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, the guide says. It has been adapted over the years for use on Humvees, Strykers and even small attack boats.
A soldier from the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade uses an MK19 grenade launcher during live-fire training at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., on Sept. 16, 2025. (Brandon Bruer/U.S. Army)
The Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command planned to request white papers on or after Nov. 25, the contract announcement said.
The solicitation closes 30 calendar days later. The performance period is listed as up to four years, and further contracts could be awarded following a successful prototype.
Drone warfare has developed rapidly in recent years following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The ability of small, off-the-shelf drones to carry munitions to strike personnel, armor and command posts has dramatically changed military strategy and tactics.
Drones have frequently been the focal point of Army exercises at the Grafenwoehr Training Area and the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in the German state of Bavaria.
They’ve also been integrated into Army doctrine through modernization initiatives dubbed Transforming in Contact and the counter-drone Project Flytrap.
In related news, German contractor Diehl Defence successfully tested a pair of anti-drone platforms in the Grafenwoehr Training Area, which it uses with the permission of the German government, the company said in a statement on Nov. 27.
Diehl’s Kinetic Defense Vehicle intercepted a fixed-wing drone by integrating with an unnamed long-range defense platform, the statement said.
And at least one drone was intercepted with a Cicada, which Diehl’s website describes as an electrically propelled missile developed specifically to defend against low-cost drones and drone swarms.
Diehl Defence, a German military contractor, successfully tested a pair of anti-drone platforms at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Grafenwoehr, Germany, the company said in a statement on Nov. 27, 2025. (Diehl Defence)
Stars and Stripes reporter Marcus Kloeckner contributed to this report.
