M202 FLASH American 66mm Rocket Launcher Flamethrowers

The United States stopped using flamethrowers in 1979, not necessarily because of the horror the weapons inflict, but more because of they were deemed less effective in modern combat. Not long after the United States stopped using flamethrowers, Geneva passed standards on military use of flamethrowers in December 1983, with the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. One of the main shifts was that it banned use of the weapons in areas near concentrations of civilians. The M202 FLASH (FLame Assault SHoulder) is an American rocket launcher, designed to replace the World War II–vintage flamethrowers (such as the M1 and the M2) that remained the military's standard incendiary devices well into the 1960s. The XM202 prototype launcher was tested in the Vietnam War, as part of the XM191 system. The M202A1 features four tubes that can load 66 mm incendiary rockets. The M74 rockets are equipped with M235 warheads, containing approximately 1.34 pounds (0.61 kg) of an incendiary agent. The substance, often mistaken for napalm, is in fact TPA (thickened pyrophoric agent). TPA is triethylaluminum (TEA) thickened with polyisobutylene. TEA, an organometallic compound, is pyrophoric and burns spontaneously at temperatures of 1600 °C (2912 °F) when exposed to air. It burns "white hot" because of the aluminum, much hotter than gasoline or napalm. The light and heat emission is very intense and can produce skin burns from some (close) distance without direct contact with the flame, by thermal radiation alone. The M202 was designed to share its 66mm caliber with the contemporary M72 LAW antitank rocket launcher, to allow it to be used as an antitank launcher. While HEAT rounds were trialled with the XM191 launcher under the designation XM78, no HEAT clips were ever manufactured for the M202. Similarly, a crowd control agent round using CS gas, the XM96, was trialled, but never entered service. The weapon is meant to be fired from the right shoulder, and can be fired from either a standing, crouching, or prone position. It is loaded with a clip which holds a set of four rockets together, which is inserted into the rear of the launcher and can be pushed past the launching position to enable the launcher to be carried while loaded more easily.