Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Surprise meSurprise meSubscribe
Encyclopedia

OCSW

1980s United States military arms program

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated September 25, 2025

The OCSW (Objective Crew Served Weapon) was a U.S. Military arms program started in the 1980s that led to a hybrid smaller prototype automatic autocannon developed by General Dynamics Armament Systems. It led to the XM312 and XM307 designs.

As a part of the SAMP (Small Arms Master Plan) program, it had the same laser targeting system as the XM29 OICW, but was intended to supplement the 40 mm Mk 19 grenade launcher and the .50 M2 Browning machine gun. It could fire armor-piercing or explosive 25 mm grenades at a cyclic rate of 260 rounds per minute, and had an effective range up to 2 kilometres. It underwent combat trials before being cancelled.

Watch videos about OCSWExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “OCSW”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.

Continue exploring

Related topics

Objective Individual Combat Weapon

The Objective Individual Combat Weapon was the next-generation service rifle competition under development as part of the United States Army OICW program; the program was discontinued without bringing the weapon out of the prototype phase. The acronym OICW is often used to refer to the entire weapons program.

Autocannon

An autocannon, automatic cannon, machine cannon or anti-tank machine gun, is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-calibre armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bullets) fired by a machine gun. Autocannons have a longer effective range and greater terminal performance than machine guns, due to the use of larger/heavier munitions (most often in the range of 20-60 mm (0.79-2.36 in), but bigger calibers also exist), but are usually smaller than tank guns, howitzers, field guns, or other artillery.

Mk 47 Striker

The Mk 47 or Striker 40 is a 40mm automatic grenade launcher with an integrated fire control system, capable of launching smart programmable 40mm air burst grenades in addition to various unguided rounds. In addition to being able to fire all NATO standard high-velocity 40mm rounds like the Mk 19 grenade launcher, it can fire Mk 285 smart grenades that can be programmed to air burst after a set distance.