Murphy’s Law: Troop Initiative And New Stuff
30th October 2020
Two former U.S. Navy SEALs started a business (Matbock) to develop and sell equipment they wish they had while SEALs but could not find. One of their first products was the ARDS (Acquire Read Deploy Sight) for use on assault rifles equipped with an M203 or M320 under the barrel 40mm grenade launcher. The M320 already had available a detachable DNS electronic sight. While the DNS was an improvement over the original iron sight, there were several obvious (to users) features missing. ARDS provided what DNS lacked and users wanted. ARDS sight enables the user to select model of grenade launcher as well as ammo type (illumination, smoke or explosive). ARDS contains a microprocessor and sensors similar to those found in smartphones or smartwatches. This enables to ARDS to sense positioning of the grenade launcher and calculate how far the grenade will go and where it will land. A small LCD tells you how far away the shell will land based on how you are holding the rifle mounting the M203 or M320. A handheld laser range finder is used to get the range to target. ARDS can be demonstrated on a firing range to first time users, who are convinced once they see their first ARDS directed grenade land on the target. ARDS was introduced in 2019 and within a year SOCOM (Special Operations Command) had ordered a thousand.