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List of 40 mm grenades

cartridge

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ231328
Source-derived summary

This is a general collection of the world's many types of ammunition for grenade launchers in 40 mm (1.57 in) caliber.

Several countries have developed or adopted 40 mm-caliber grenade launchers.

NATO

NATO currently uses three standardized 40 mm grenade families: 40 mm low-velocity (LV), 40 mm medium-velocity (MV), and 40 mm high-velocity (HV). Low- and medium-velocity cartridges are used for different hand-held grenade launchers, while the high-velocity cartridge is used for automatic grenade launchers.

40×46 mm LV (40 mm low velocity)

40×46 mm LV (low velocity) is a NATO-standard high–low grenade launcher cartridge meant for hand-held grenade launchers, such as the M79, M203, Milkor MGL, Heckler & Koch AG36 and M320 Grenade Launcher Module.

The propellant has low pressure and gives the projectile an average velocity of 78–84 m/s (256–276 ft/s) depending on the ammunition type.

40 mm low-velocity ammunition types (NATO)

Besides combat ammo, there is also crowd-control ammunition such as sponge grenades.

40 mm low-velocity ammunition types (Sweden)

Sweden currently operates the M203 grenade launcher (designated Granattillsats 40 mm Automatkarbin in Sweden) and thus uses the 40 mm low-velocity cartridge. Going against Swedish military tradition, the 40 mm low-velocity cartridge currently lacks a specified indigenous designation in Swedish service. Instead only the projectile types have designations.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “List of 40 mm grenades” as cartridge. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 209-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where List, grenades and cartridge can be independently traced.
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Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as cartridge. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q231328. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

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A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from List of 40 mm grenades” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.