New Russian OOB (or SPR OOB)

[badger45]

Hi Don,

I have just stumbled upon the book, dedicated to rocket assisted grenades in Russian army. As it is in Russian, I will just summarize info about RPG-1 and RPG-2 found there. BTW it is free for download at http://www.army.lv/?s=2002 / direct link: http://www.army.lv/files/133.pdf

RPG-1 was developed from 1944 to 1947. The development was finally canceled due to "much time lost on finalizing the grenades (this was connected with unsatisfactory performance caused by imperfect function of fuse ...) leading to moral obsolescence of the complex. Works did not continue in 1948, the weapon was not finished and it was not accepted in service."

Practical firing distance on target height 2m was 50 meters, penetration 150mm. Grenade weight 1.6 kg, initial speed 40 m/s. Calibre of weapon 30mm, grenade 70mm. Grenade designation PG-70.

Works on RPG-2 started at 1947, in 1949 it was accepted for service. 1957 appeared new modification which had some infra sight and was designated RPG-2N (probably N=nocnoy=night).

Practical firing distance on target height 2m was 100 meters, penetration 200mm. Grenade weight 1.84 kg, initial speed 84 m/s. Calibre of weapon 40mm, grenade 80mm. Grenade designation PG-2.

The book seems pretty reliable and realistic (Russian sources are sometimes biased, so one must be careful). For example, recently discussed B-11 has following data: practical firing distance on target height 2m was 450 meters, penetration 290mm. Grenade weight 12.54 kg, initial speed 400 m/s. Calibre 107mm.

Regards,
badger45