Commander tours Yala

Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka toured Yala today. This was the Commander's first visit after transferring Yala Area Commander Brig. Sudantha Ranasinghe and replacing him with a Colonel.

Meanwhile the SLA handed over 14 bodies to ICRC at Anuradhapura today. The bodies included the remains of 7 Tigers killed at Weli Oya on 25^th evening. They were then handed over to LTTE at Omanthai.

Who made this?

Half of the LTTE’s weapons, especially small arms and light weapons, have been left in the unidentified category. A grenade launcher is one example in the unidentified weapons category.

A grenade launcher is a highly effective ‘direct-fire’ infantry weapon system against personnel and light-vehicles. It is believed that the LTTE is operating more than ninety 40mm grenade launchers. This weapon is quite useful for specific occasions such as police duties because it can deploy not only HE shells but smoke grenades, flares, even rubber bullets.

Figure 1: LTTE cadre with a grenade launcher

In this figure, a LTTE cadre is holding a single-shot grenade launcher. Recently, grenade launchers are mostly fully automatic like the Russian AGS-17 30 mm or under-barrel like M203. We can find many automatic or revolver type grenade launchers from various manufacturers.

However, in case of a single-shot GL, there are only two examples; HK 69 and M-79 40mm GL. The LTTE cadre’s grenade launcher seems a copy of HK-69A1. This copy has a longer barrel than the original for compensating its possibly worse accuracy.

Figure 2: a Single shot Grenade Launcher, HK-69A1

First, GL is easy to manufacture. In case of a single-shot grenade launcher, it does not need a superior knowledge of metallurgy; even local blacksmith can build this weapon.

Figure 3: home-made grenade launcher, captured in Northern Afghanistan

Of course, Heckler and Koch guarantee more accuracy than the LTTE’s products. However, in terms of explosive power, we assume that there are no remarkable differences. It is hard to speculate this weapon's latest modifications, range or specifications and we are not sure whether or if or how or to what effect any improvements to the weapon have been made. However, it is sure that this is not an H&K’s original but the LTTE can build this weapon easily.