Military Technology- Simon Breaching Munition

One problem faced by soldiers in urban combat is doors. They are everywhere, and you have to get through them. Most are locked and many are heavy enough to stand up to repeated kicks and hammer blows. And that doesn't even touch on the fact that they may be booby trapped.

Enter the Simon from from Rafael in Israel. It is a rifle grenade designed to blow doors clean off their hinges. It has a range of 30 meters and weighs a pound and a half and is about 2.5 feet long. Unlike many other rifle grenades, the Simon can be fired with a regular bullet. Most rifle grenades from years past had to be fired with a special blank cartridge. This meant the user had to keep loose blanks or an extra magazine loaded with blanks. Then, when the grenade was needed he would have to clear the chamber and load the blank, mount the grenade and fire. It would be easy under stress to forget to clear the live round from the chamber. And you do not want that to happen. It could ruin the rifle, the grenade, your day, and maybe your face.


The Simon has a standoff rod that, when fired at the door, causes the impact fuse to detonate. The blast wave of the Simon is large and powerful enough to knock the door inside the room and unlike some other breaching methods, it is not necessary to aim for hinges or locks. The Simon is also in service with the US Army as the M100 Rifle Grenade Entry Munition and was awarded as one of the top 10 best inventions of 2005.