Rheinmetall to provide munitions to Navy, Marine Corps

Feb. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have awarded munitions contracts to Rheinmetall Defense, the company said Wednesday in a press release.

Rheinmetall Defense said the Department of Defense awarded the company two multi-million-dollar munitions contracts that total nearly $7 million.

For the Marine Corps, Rheinmetall will provide day and night-capable 40mm x 46 practice cartridges valued around $3 million. The practice cartridges are low velocity grenade launcher ammunition.

The ammunition can be fired out of the M203 Grenade Launcher that is often attached to M16 and M4 service rifles, as well as the new M320 grenade launcher and the Mk 19, a 40mm belt-fed automatic grenade launcher.

The Navy has requested advanced flash-bang grenades, awarding Rheinmetall a $3.8 million contract for the purchase. The grenades are commonly used by both conventional and special operation forces when clearing out enemy strongholds.

The company started the delivery of munitions to the Marine Corps in December 2017 and delivery is expect to start for the the Navy at sometime during 2018.

Deliveries on both contracts will be handled by Rheinmetall's U.S. subsidiary, American Rheinmetall Munitions, Inc., which is based in Camden, Ark.