106mm Recoilless Rifle

The Rifle Recoilless, 106mm, M40A2 was adopted by the Canadian Army primarily as an anti-armour weapon. It was intended for use in an infantry Anti-Tank Platoon.

History

The 106mm Recoilless Rifle came into service in the mid 1950's, and was retired from the Regular Force in 1976 with the introduction of the TOW System. In the Reserve Force, the weapon was replaced in 1988 by the Carl Gustav.

106 RCL on M79 mount, with spotting rifle.

Description

The 106mm Recoilless Rifle (or 106mm RCL for short) was a lightweight recoilless rifle designed primarily as an anti-armour weapon but also used in an anti-personnel role. The gun was an air-cooled, breech-loaded, single-shot, crew-served weapon. The gun itself had a manually operated breech and percussion type firing mechanism, and the complete gun with sight bracket, firing cables and transfer box weighed 114kg (251 lbs).

The gun was normally fitted to an M79 mount and fired either from the ground, or mounted on the 1/4 ton truck (Jeep) or M113 APC.