Nightcrawler
Member
Anybody know anything about the history of Russian rocket-propelled grenades?
We're all familliar with the RPG-7, the most prolific of the RPGs. It's the one you see the tangos hauling around in Al-Qadea training videos (saw one guy storm a building with one...was wondering what he was planning on doing with it in there....).
I have a question about. When it was standard issue in the Soviet Army (what, 1960s maybe?), how was it issued? One per squad? And the guy that carried the RPG; was it his primary weapon, or did he have to carry the launcher, the rockets, AND and AKM and spare magazines?
At the same time, we had the LAW. Lightweight, disposable, easy to tote. We replaced the LAW with the AT-4. It's also disposable, but weighs three times as much, doesn't collapse down for easy carry, and is three feet long. The AT-4 is more powerful than the LAW, but much less portable.
I don't know how efffective the AT-4 is against modern tanks, though. I'm sure it'd do okay against a T-72 (the LAW, maybe a T-55 or T-64), and the dozens of BMPs, BRDMs, BTRs, etc., armored vehicles the Russians fielded, but it's not going to be effective against a T-80 or later tank.
The RPG-7 is ineffective against our Abrams, if the reports coming back from Iraq are true. It still works well against humvees, trucks, M113s, and LAVs, though. Don't know how the upgraded armor of the Bradley holds up against it.
The Russians don't issue the RPG-7 anymore. I'm sure they have a new, lighter, less bulky launcher. Anybody know anything about what launchers came after the RPG-7?
The US military is, according to FAS, now fielding the M3 MAAWS, which is basically the Sweedish Carl Gustaf rocket launcher. Still, the M3 weighs 25 pounds. The good old LAW weighs less than eight pounds. Lot of good it'll do you if it just makes a black spot on the side of the enemy tank's armor, though...
We're all familliar with the RPG-7, the most prolific of the RPGs. It's the one you see the tangos hauling around in Al-Qadea training videos (saw one guy storm a building with one...was wondering what he was planning on doing with it in there....).
I have a question about. When it was standard issue in the Soviet Army (what, 1960s maybe?), how was it issued? One per squad? And the guy that carried the RPG; was it his primary weapon, or did he have to carry the launcher, the rockets, AND and AKM and spare magazines?
At the same time, we had the LAW. Lightweight, disposable, easy to tote. We replaced the LAW with the AT-4. It's also disposable, but weighs three times as much, doesn't collapse down for easy carry, and is three feet long. The AT-4 is more powerful than the LAW, but much less portable.
I don't know how efffective the AT-4 is against modern tanks, though. I'm sure it'd do okay against a T-72 (the LAW, maybe a T-55 or T-64), and the dozens of BMPs, BRDMs, BTRs, etc., armored vehicles the Russians fielded, but it's not going to be effective against a T-80 or later tank.
The RPG-7 is ineffective against our Abrams, if the reports coming back from Iraq are true. It still works well against humvees, trucks, M113s, and LAVs, though. Don't know how the upgraded armor of the Bradley holds up against it.
The Russians don't issue the RPG-7 anymore. I'm sure they have a new, lighter, less bulky launcher. Anybody know anything about what launchers came after the RPG-7?
The US military is, according to FAS, now fielding the M3 MAAWS, which is basically the Sweedish Carl Gustaf rocket launcher. Still, the M3 weighs 25 pounds. The good old LAW weighs less than eight pounds. Lot of good it'll do you if it just makes a black spot on the side of the enemy tank's armor, though...
