Olin Corp RAAM Rifleman's Anti-Armor Weapon

DanielStarseer

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Can't seem to find mention of this (1980s?) modern rifle "grenade" much online, but vaguely remember it from some random war magazine or one of those Jane's "pocket books" that I cannot locate... Anyone have any information? Much obliged.
 
Found this image and a little bit of info via the Combat Reform website:
1616772579933.png

Noted weapons expert Last Dingo passed this tidbit and photo on to us:
RAAM (Rifle Launched Anti-Armour Munition) was developed at the end of the 1980s for the needs of the USMC.

For use, first an adapter must be installed onto the assault rifle. The grenade can be fired with completely normal ammunition, whereby in case of ball, the projectile remains and the grenade brings it away to a safe distance. Afterwards, the rocket engine at a safe distance ignites, thus RAAM can also be fired from closed areas. The HEAT warhead is ignited by a proximity fuze and becomes armed only after 10 meters of flight.

Manufacturers: Olin
Kind: Rifle anti-tank rocket grenade
Weight: 1.65 kg
Length: 56.4 cm long
Range Effective: 250m
Caliber: 400mm
 
From an old thread on rifle grenades over in the Infantry Discussion Board at StrategyPage:
And on the note of what can be achieved with rifle grenades, I so wish there was at least one decent site out there that had credible info on the Olin Corp RAAM Rifleman's Anti-Armor Weapon, a munition weighing about 1&3/4 kg and was (judging by pictures) about a foot and a half long (including a few inches of stand-off probe), which claimed a performance of ">400mm" against armor, and a range of 250m (by the pictures, it's roughly the same diameter as the round handguards of the M16A1 & up); and also the Brunswick Corp RAW Rifleman's Assault Weapon, a roughly 4&3/4kg "toffee apple"-looking munition, containing a 140mm diameter warhead holding 1kg of plastic explosive, a small tube of propellant (was spin-stabilized), claiming a maximum range of 1500m and penetration of 200mm of concrete (with considerable blast debris & fragmentation, no doubt). Both of these (by the pictures in books I have) are shown being fitted & fired from US Army M16s (the RAAM was a rocket-boosted bullet trap rifle grenade, while the RAW had a rather clumsy-looking gas trap system that attached to the rifle's business end, bleeding muzzle gas into some kind of chamber to intiate the RAW's propellant, spin-up & launch), with both claiming to have recoil no worse than a 12 gauge shotgun (pictures are shown firing off the shoulder in kneeling positions), not something really difficult for most military-trained shooters. (these two munitions can both be seen in Greenhill Military Manuals' Infantry Support Weapons: Mortars, Missiles, and Machine Guns, pp 74-77, c1995, ISBN 1-85367-210-6, Ian V Hogg.)

With regards as to the RAW: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/the-secret-projects-quiz-game.19676/page-4#post-341090
 
I don't think it is related, though I could be wrong.
 
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From an old thread on rifle grenades over in the Infantry Discussion Board at StrategyPage:
And on the note of what can be achieved with rifle grenades, I so wish there was at least one decent site out there that had credible info on the Olin Corp RAAM Rifleman's Anti-Armor Weapon, a munition weighing about 1&3/4 kg and was (judging by pictures) about a foot and a half long (including a few inches of stand-off probe), which claimed a performance of ">400mm" against armor, and a range of 250m (by the pictures, it's roughly the same diameter as the round handguards of the M16A1 & up); and also the Brunswick Corp RAW Rifleman's Assault Weapon, a roughly 4&3/4kg "toffee apple"-looking munition, containing a 140mm diameter warhead holding 1kg of plastic explosive, a small tube of propellant (was spin-stabilized), claiming a maximum range of 1500m and penetration of 200mm of concrete (with considerable blast debris & fragmentation, no doubt). Both of these (by the pictures in books I have) are shown being fitted & fired from US Army M16s (the RAAM was a rocket-boosted bullet trap rifle grenade, while the RAW had a rather clumsy-looking gas trap system that attached to the rifle's business end, bleeding muzzle gas into some kind of chamber to intiate the RAW's propellant, spin-up & launch), with both claiming to have recoil no worse than a 12 gauge shotgun (pictures are shown firing off the shoulder in kneeling positions), not something really difficult for most military-trained shooters. (these two munitions can both be seen in Greenhill Military Manuals' Infantry Support Weapons: Mortars, Missiles, and Machine Guns, pp 74-77, c1995, ISBN 1-85367-210-6, Ian V Hogg.)

With regards as to the RAW: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/the-secret-projects-quiz-game.19676/page-4#post-341090

heh heh, the irony of it is, I knew that guy who posted it, years ago, went by handle "doggtag", old Army chum from my earlier contractor days. I actually initially looked at that, but he didn't have any pics, and I couldn't remember the book, that Greenhill Military Manual.
 
Found this image and a little bit of info via the Combat Reform website:
View attachment 653603

Noted weapons expert Last Dingo passed this tidbit and photo on to us:
RAAM (Rifle Launched Anti-Armour Munition) was developed at the end of the 1980s for the needs of the USMC.

For use, first an adapter must be installed onto the assault rifle. The grenade can be fired with completely normal ammunition, whereby in case of ball, the projectile remains and the grenade brings it away to a safe distance. Afterwards, the rocket engine at a safe distance ignites, thus RAAM can also be fired from closed areas. The HEAT warhead is ignited by a proximity fuze and becomes armed only after 10 meters of flight.

Manufacturers: Olin
Kind: Rifle anti-tank rocket grenade
Weight: 1.65 kg
Length: 56.4 cm long
Range Effective: 250m
Caliber: 400mm
Confusion there being, "Caliber: 400mm".
Obviously, it's not almost 16 inches in diameter, so I'm guessing the British (European) relationship of length vs diameter....?
Any mention of actual anti armor performance?
And curious if anywhere in existence is a "for reference" photo of it next to an M72 LAW round for visual/physical comparison.

Thanks, gentlemen. Have to have a go at snagging that book.

WRT that Scorpion munition in the lower post, strangely Raytheon's Pike has taken these concepts to new levels of precision and range,
a system which itself has potential to eventually be incorporated into some flyweight mini-MLRS package on a CROWS systems.
 
Confusion there being, "Caliber: 400mm".
Short (and very similar) description of RAAM is in the Jane's Infantry Weapons 1993-94. 400 mm is the armor penetration (RHA, at perpendicular hit).

Besides of Olin, there was other competitor, McDonnell Douglas (with Talley Industries and Universal Propulsion Co. as subcontractors). Their RAAM was slightly lighter (1,5 kg) and has a tandem shaped-charge warhead. It can be shot from rifle without additional launch adapter.

Scorpion was effect of another program, MPIM - Multipurpose Individual Munition. It would be close-support weapon for urban fighting. Its main targets were "bunkers", fortified buildings, concrete and masonry walls, barricades etc. It could also engage light armored vehicles, but no MBTs.

The other competitor (I don't remember unfortunately - Loral? Lockheed?) presented more classical weapon, "bazooka-style" shoulder-fired tube launcher (disposable). Although Brunswick Lab wasn't a formal MPIM competitor, their RAW also was tested.
 
Found this image and a little bit of info via the Combat Reform website:
View attachment 653603

Noted weapons expert Last Dingo passed this tidbit and photo on to us:
RAAM (Rifle Launched Anti-Armour Munition) was developed at the end of the 1980s for the needs of the USMC.

For use, first an adapter must be installed onto the assault rifle. The grenade can be fired with completely normal ammunition, whereby in case of ball, the projectile remains and the grenade brings it away to a safe distance. Afterwards, the rocket engine at a safe distance ignites, thus RAAM can also be fired from closed areas. The HEAT warhead is ignited by a proximity fuze and becomes armed only after 10 meters of flight.

Manufacturers: Olin
Kind: Rifle anti-tank rocket grenade
Weight: 1.65 kg
Length: 56.4 cm long
Range Effective: 250m
Caliber: 400mm
Confusion there being, "Caliber: 400mm".
Obviously, it's not almost 16 inches in diameter, so I'm guessing the British (European) relationship of length vs diameter....?
Any mention of actual anti armor performance?
To quote the quoted thread "Olin Corp RAAM Rifleman's Anti-Armor Weapon, a munition weighing about 1&3/4 kg and was (judging by pictures) about a foot and a half long (including a few inches of stand-off probe), which claimed a performance of ">400mm" against armor"

Which makes me suspect the Caliber stat is either a misquote of the penetration, or the author thought it was 40mm and typed an extra 0. Another potential source of error is that HEAT penetration is sometimes expressed in calibres.

And isn't the 'Combat Reform' site the guy who thinks everything should be M113s and calls them Gavins? In which case I'd be strapping 10 foot barge poles together to assess the reliability of the data.

That round looks larger than 40mm, but not hugely so. I'd believe 57mm. Even if it were 80mm >400mm penetration of RHA would be five calibres, which would be ridiculously good for a small diameter shaped charge in the 80s. >400mm was 120mm HEAT penetration in the 70s.
 
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