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Think of it as a super-charged paintball gun. That’s what some soldiers in Iraq are toting these days to deal with troublemakers on the streets of Baghdad. But there’s nothing fun about being on the receiving end of the FN 303 Less Lethal System. The semi-automatic launcher shoots a .68 caliber projectile at 300 feet per second using compressed air. The fin-stabilized projectiles have an effective range out to 100 meters.
It’s not designed to kill, but it packs a potent sting.
The intent, Army officials say, is to give soldiers an option other than deadly ammo for deterring instigators from causing civil unrest.
Army instructors at the Non Lethal Scalable Effects Center at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., offer training on the 303, which is made by FNH USA, as do Marine Corps instructors at Leonard Wood’s Inter-service Nonlethal Individual Weapons Instructor Course.
The Army has been using the 303 in Iraq for about three years, mainly for military police. But lately, infantry units are carrying it, too, in addition to their M4s and M16s.
“Our unit is using them especially on cars that get too close to our convoys,” a soldier with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team told Army Times. The soldier preferred that his name not be published.
The 172nd’s 12-month deployment was extended in August to help quell increased violence in Baghdad. Elements of the highly mobile Stryker brigade were then sent to Iraq’s strife-torn capital.
“We were not using [the 303] in Mosul,” the soldier noted. “Only since we arrived in Baghdad were they issued to the squads.” [...]