What ever happend to the flamethrower?

Question

The last time I heard of the flame thrower being used was during the gulf war but mostly just for training purposes. Did they ban the use of the flamethrower or something?

Answer 1

No the flame thrower is still around however, it was converted as a CS dispenser in Reserve Component units. The Flame thrower was replaced by the M202A1 Flash. I havent seen in any of the BCT MTOEs so I suspect its phased out.

The flame thrower was not banned by the Geneva Convention, only its use around civilians. Check Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Protocol III
Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons dated 10 October 1980

Answer 2

They have been banned for quite awhile now. No, they are not aroung anymore and no, they are not being used to flush out caves in afghanistan/pakistan. They were used effectively for that purpose in ww2 though. They were replaced by the m202 flash for a time but those have gone away now for about 20 years now.

Answer 3

Flame throwers are now deemed to be in contravention of the Geneva convention!!

Answer 4

It has limited tactical value over a rifle so it's not as widely used as you might think. It was mostly used to clear bunkers and caves.

For those purposes, we now have bombs that can accurately pierce bunkers and FAM bombs that can suck the oxygen out of caves without much risk to ground troops.

Answer 5

No, it's still around. I believe the army and Marines have gathered them up and amassed them along the Afghanistan/ Pakistan border, for the next phase of the 'get Osama' push ! These things work great in flushing out islamic fanatics from caves and tunnels .

Answer 6

They were outlawed by the geneva convention a long time ago. they were deemed cruel. We don't use napalm anymore either. They are called fire bombs now.

Answer 7

napalm bombs are more effective.