At the end of the Second World War the Italian Army continued to use the pre-war model of offensive percussion hand-held bomb SRCM (Società Romana Costruzioni Meccaniche) Mod. 35.
Only at the beginning of the 80 years of the previous century was the decision to introduce a new bomb model, the O / D 82 (1982 Offensive / Defensive), whose entry into service only takes place in the following decade. The Italian military contingents deployed in Kurdistan in the 1991 and in Somalia in the 1992 were still equipped with SRCMs (of limited effectiveness containing only 42 g of TNT). During the Ibis mission, our troops had to make do with ordnance found locally or seized from Somali militias, such as the former Soviet F-1 and RGO hand grenades. In the last phases of the mission the first 82 O / Ds were distributed, with a timed activation device. However, already from the first batches some problems emerged regarding their actual safety, with many accidents. To avoid these problems (not very justifiable given the development times) changes were made, which did not prevent, in the 2007, the explosion of a deposit, where the bombs were packed, in Spoleto.
The incident signaled the end of the 82 O / D program - without the reasons for the failure being made public - by moving towards the adoption of a new hand grenade model called the MF-2000. It is a device with an electronic time activated spool. One can be applied to the basic model shirt that transforms it into a defensive hand bomb, increasing the dispersion of splinters. It is a plastic coating, with a layer of balls that is screwed externally and covers most of the body of the bomb.
Assembled in the military factory of Bagni di Spoleto, in the 2016 an accident occurred in which an assembly worker was injured. Accident that has inevitably slowed the entry into service of the new bomb.
(photo: SMMT)
