Mount Bundey Training Area, Australia. (September 4, 2024): In this photo by Corporal Juan Torres, Lance Corporal Eli Gregg assists Lance Corporal Ryan Waskosky who is firing a Multi-Role Anti-Armor Anti-Personnel Weapons System (MAAWS) during a training exercise led by the Australian Army’s 1st Brigade. The “Yanks” cross-trained Aussie troops in the employment of this devastating weapon during live-fire exercises at this sprawling military training area.

The MAAWS is an 84mm lightweight, man-portable, direct-fire recoilless rifle that is effective against light/medium armor, personnel in open, and bunkers and structural targets out to 4,300 feet. The system consists of the M3A1 Carl Gustaf Recoilless Rifle, a fire-control system, and a backup reflex sight in case the primary optic malfunctions.

Designed specifically for urban warfare, the MAAWS supplements other shoulder fired rocket launchers currently in use, but with some significant advances.

First, the MAAWS is reloadable versus the single shot Light Anti-tank Weapon (LAW) and these additional rounds dramatically increase the options available to an infantry platoon. These munitions include smoke, illumination, anti-personnel, armor penetration, and bunker or hardened-facility penetration rounds.

Its advanced fire control system has an integrated laser range finder coupled with a ballistic computer capable of programming high explosive air-bursting ammunition at moving targets. Feedback from live-fire events has shown a 90% or greater hit ratio on moving targets at one thousand feet and stationary targets out to 2,600 feet. Besides smoke and illumination rounds, the MAAWS can fire rounds targeting light armor and structures, medium armor, airburst, and thermobaric rounds for fortified bunkers.

Over the next five years, both the Army and Marine Corps are expected to field more than 2,500 of these lightweight weapons to combat units thereby changing the way infantry platoons fight in the future.