FN 303

History

The FN 303 originated from a Monterey Bay Corporation project called the XM303. The development team included designers from two paintball firms, among them Airgun Designs. The prototype, named the Under Barrel Tactical Paintball System (UBTPS), could attach to an M16 rifle, coupling less-lethal capability with a lethal weapon system.

A stand-alone version was also created. The UBTPS featured a rotating barrel magazine for selecting different projectile types without changing magazines. A bismuth-weighted projectile was developed to meet engagement range requirements.

Ammunition

The FN 303 fires a spherical, fin-stabilized projectile. The forward half is a non-toxic granulated bismuth shell that fragments on impact to prevent penetration. The rear half contains one of several color-coded liquid payloads: clear glycol base for training, yellow latex-based permanent paint, pink water-soluble fluorescent paint, or orange glycol base mixed with 10% OC (pepper spray) at 5 million SHU. The projectile mass is 8.5 g, producing a muzzle energy of 31 J.

Safety

The FN 303 has a documented history of causing serious injuries, beginning with a fatal incident in Boston, Massachusetts, in October 2004. Victoria Snelgrove was hit in the eye by a round fired by a Boston Police Department officer and died about twelve hours later. An autopsy showed the pellet created a 1.9-centimeter hole in the bone behind her eye, broke into nine pieces, and damaged the right side of her brain. Later tests by the police department found that the weapon’s accuracy dropped significantly after roughly 300 shots.

The officer who fired the weapon said he was aiming at a rioter throwing bottles and did not realize a bystander had been struck. A $15 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the manufacturer, FN Herstal, was settled in July 2006. In 2007, the Boston Police Department destroyed its remaining FN 303s, explaining that the weapon was more powerful and lethal than expected.

In Luxembourg on 11 May 2009, police used the FN 303 for the first time during protests, hitting an RTL cameraman in the hand and breaking one of his fingers. On 2 June 2013, during the Gezi Park protests in Ankara, Turkey, a protester was wounded in the face by a plastic bullet later linked to police use of the FN 303. In Finland on 6 December 2015, police used the weapon during Independence Day demonstrations, and one counter-protester suffered eye injuries from projectile fragments. A 2019 study found that the FN 303 performed significantly worse outside of a laboratory setting; when operational conditions were simulated by inducing physiological and psychological stress, both accuracy and reported ease of use were lower than in the control group.

Users

The FN 303 is used by the Buenos Aires City Police; the DSU counter-terrorism group, Police de Liège (PAB), and Antwerp local police in Belgium; the Land Forces and Military Police of Brazil; the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia; the Police of Finland; some Special Investigation Teams including that of the Aichi Prefectural Police in Japan; Mexico, which purchased 2,000 launchers in 2009; the Unité Spéciale de la Police of the Grand Ducal Police in Luxembourg; the Gelderland Province in the Netherlands, which purchased one launcher for rangers to repel wolves; the Polícia de Segurança Pública of Portugal, which purchased 200 launchers in 2018; the Singapore Police Coast Guard's Special Task Squadron and the Singapore Prison Service SPEAR unit; the Protection and Crowds Control Division under the Metropolitan Police Bureau of Thailand; the Çevik Kuvvet of Turkey's General Directorate of Security; and various U.S. agencies including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force, Customs and Border Protection, Alameda County Sheriff's Office, Los Angeles Police Department, and Portland Police Bureau.