From Bazooka to Racket Propelled Grenade (RPG)

Retired Colonel Savaş YILMAZ

The BAZOOKA was man portable antitank rocket launcher made famous during world war 2 where it was one of the United States Armed Forces’ s primary infantry anti-tank weapons. It was one of the first weapons based on the High Explosive Anti-Tank(HEAT) shell to enter service.

It was nickname ‘’BAZOOKA’’ from a vague resemblance to the musical instrument of the same name. It saw widespread use thought 1952 and Korea war.

In addition to the actual weapon, the world ‘BAZOOKA’ is often incorrectly used to refer to similar weapon, such as rocket propelled grenade or M72LAW.

HISTORICAL:

ROCKET LAUNCHER, M1A1 BAZOOKA-1942’s ROCKET LAUNCHER, M9 BAZOOKA -1945’s ROCKET LAUNCHER, M9A1 BAZOOKA-1952’s ROCKET LAUNCHER, M20A1B1 BAZOOKA -1952’s RPG -1961’s Launcher, Rocket, Antitank, M-9 Series

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION:
Length (when assembled for firing): 1.524 mm
Caliber: 89 mm
Weight (unloaded): M20A1:6.4Kg
M20A1B1: 5.9Kg
Range (max): 823m
Effective: Station
Target: 275 m Moving
Target: 185m
Crew: 2 persons(operator/loader)

AMMUNITION:

Ammunition	Caliper
CHM-81 HEAT	89mm
FIM Smoke	89mm
FIM CHEM	89mm
Hydroar HEAT	89mm
M-28 HEAT	89mm
M-29 HEDP	89mm
NR-415 HEAT-FRAG	89mm
Mecar LR HEAT	89mm
Portuguese HEDP	89mm
RJ 3.5AE APAC HEDP-FRAG	89mm

The Rocket Grenade Launcher (RPG) is man portable, shoulder-launched rocket propelled grenade weapon. Its ruggedness, simplicity, low cost and effectiveness have made it most widely used RPG in the world.

Currently, around forty countries use the weapon and it is manufactured in a number of variants by nine countries.

It is also popular with irregular and guerrilla forces, including terrorist organizations.

The RPG 7 was first delivered to the Soviet Army in 1961 and deployed at a squad level. It replaced the RPG-3, having clearly out-performed the intermediate RPG-4 design during testing.

Its original design concept originated with to era weapons. The American Bazooka and German Panzer Faust.

The current model produced by Russia is the RPG-7V2,capable of firing standard and dual HEAT, high explosive fragmentation, and thermo baric warheads with UP-7V sighting device fitted( used in tandem with the standard optical sight)to allow the use of extended range ammunition. The RPG-7D3 is the equivalent paratrooper model.

Both the adopted by the Russian Army in 2001.

The Launcher is based around a simple milled steel tube,40mm in diameter, 95.3 cm long, and weighing just 7 kg. The middle is wood wrapped to protect the user from heat and the end is flared to assist in blast shielding and recoil reduction.

Sighting is usually optical with iron sight, but passive infrared and night sights are available.

As with similar weapons, the grenade protrudes from the launch tubes. It is larger than a hand grenade (70-85 mm in diameter) and weights between 2.5 and 4.5 kg. It is propelled by a gunpowder booster charge at 115 m/sc which creates a cloud of light grey blue smoke. The rocket motor ignites after 10 meter and sustains flight out to 500 meters at a maximum velocity of 295 m/sc. The grenade can fly up to 1100 meter; The fuze sets the maximum range usually 920 m accurate firing is difficult over 300 m.

AMMUNITION: The RPG-7 can fire a variety of warheads for antiarmor( HEAT,PG) or antipersonnel( HE-OG) purposes, usually fitting with impact(PIBD) and4.5 second fuze. Armor penetration is warhead dependent and ranges from 30 to 60 cm homogenous steel; two warhead types (PG-7BR and VR)are tandem devices used to defeat reactive armor with single shot.

Current production ammunition for the RPG-7V2 consists of three types:

PG-7VL standard HEAT warhead for most vehicles and fortified targets (93mm)
PG-7VR dual HEAT warhead for defeating modern heavily armored vehicles (105mm)
TBG-7V thermo baric warhead for anti-personnel and urban warfare (105mm)
OG-7V fragmentation warhead for anti-personnel warfare (within caliber due to limitations of international treaties)

Specifications
* Weight: 7 kg (15 lb)
* Length: 95 cm (37")

* PG-7V:
** Warhead: Single-stage HEAT
** Round weight: 2.6 kg (5.7 lb)
** Diameter: 70,5 mm (2.7")
** Penetration: Over 330 mm RHA (12.9")

* PG-7VL:
** Warhead: Single-stage HEAT
** Round weight: 2.6 kg (5.7 lb)
** Diameter: 93 mm (3.65")
** Penetration: Over 500 mm RHA (19.5")

* PG-7VR:
** Warhead: Tandem HEAT
** Round weight: 4.5 kg (9.9 lb)
** Diameter: 105 mm (4.1")
** Penetration: Over 600 mm RHA after reactive armor (23.4")

* OG-7V:
** Warhead: Fragmentation
** Round weight: 2 kg (4 lb)
** Diameter: 40 mm (1.6")
** Maximum kill area for people wearing body armor: 150 m (492 ft)

* TBG-7V:
** Warhead: Single-stage thermo baric
** Round weight: 4.5 kg (9.9 lb)
** Diameter: 105 mm (4.1")
** Kill radius: 8 m (26 ft)
** Penetration: From 150 to 480 mm RHA (6 to 18")

Retired Colonel Savaş YILMAZ was born in Erzurum in 1952. He entered to the Kuleli Military High School in 1968, in Istanbul. YILMAZ has graduated from Army War School in 1974. He served in different units of the Army as Ordanance training officer. YILMAZ alos served as weapon teacher in Ordnance School between 1977-1984. YILMAZ had various weapon courses both in Turkey and abroad. He had English Language course in the Air Force Language School in İzmir. Ret. YILMAZ has been assigned as military management Attaché in England as well. AThe latest, he has served vise of commander, Ordanance Material Command in the Logistics Command of Turkish Land Forces between 2000-2001. He has retired in 2001. YILMAZ is currently an advisor of hangdgun and shotgun technologies field.