FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. –
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 110th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team fired AT4 anti-tank weapons during training Aug. 16 at Fort Indiantown Gap.
The training, which was designed to familiarize the Soldiers with the weapon system, was part of the battalion’s two-week annual training period.
“We like all of our guys being familiar,” said 1st Lt. Lewis Sommerville, a platoon leader with Alpha Company, 1-110th Infantry. “As a platoon leader, I task my weapons squad mainly with a familiarization with this weapon system, but company-wide we like all of our guys to be familiar with it.”
The weapon – the M136A1 AT4 Confined Space Shoulder Launched Munition – is about 41 inches long and weighs about 17 pounds. It fires an 84-milimeter round that weighs about 4 pounds and travels about 225 meters per second.
The targets the Soldiers were shooting at were about 500 meters away.
“It’s an anti-tank weapon, so our weapons squad in our platoon, as a light infantry unit, they’ll be tasked with taking out any tanks that happen upon our position if we’re downrange,” Sommerville said.
Before firing live rounds, the Soldiers practiced with modified AT4s that fire 9-milimeter rounds.
“Guys sometimes get a little nervous around rockets, so we like to have them as familiarized as we can before they shoot a live round,” Sommerville said.
Sommerville said Soldiers often enjoy the opportunity to fire weapons like the AT4.
“This is why they signed up,” he said. “There’s a lot of down time in the Army, but when we have ranges like this, I think it makes it worth it in the guys’ minds.”