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American Soldiers who are issued an M16 rifle with underbarrel grenade launchers are given the M203. It has a barrel that slides forward for the insertion of the round. The HK79 is the German counterpart to the M203, and mounts on the G3, HK33 and the now defunct G41 rifle. When the HK79 was added, each of these rifles had the 'TGS' suffix added to their name. It stands for 'Tactical Group System.' The HK79 is a finely made grenade launcher, but you would expect that from HK. The only real downsides to what is a lack of popularity of them, at least on this side of the ocean, is weight and price. A G3 rifle, already heavy in its own right, is fit only for Arnold Schwarzenegger at more than nine pounds, empty! Add the HK79, some full 20 round .308 magazines, and you can see that the average soldier would wear out quickly. The HK79 is expensive, at more than $1400 U.S. There are not many in inventory in American police departments, even for the few that use 40mm over the more ubiquitous 37mm.
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| HK G3-TGS with HK79 Grenade Launcher. Add on ladder sight is mounted on rear scope mount bracket. This would be one heavy combination. |
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| The HK79 is loaded by tilting down the barrel. This allows much longer specialty munitions to be used than those that the M203 can handle. |
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| Closeup of the HK79. The trigger is on the side, directly below the cocking handle of the G3. The cocking lever is directly in front of the G3 magazine, and looks like the cocking handle of the M16 rifle. Below is the barrel opening mechanism. |
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| How unfair for our "soldier" on the left. He not only has to lug the G3-TGS around, but has to carry some extra belts for Herr Schäfer as well! |
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HK79 mounted on out of production G41A3 rifle. |
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HK79 mounted on HK33 rifle. |
