Grenade of the RGO: characteristics

In 1954 the Soviet Army received a new grenade, RGD-5. It was much more convenient and reliable than the then accepted RG-42, and therefore quickly took its place. Together with the old F-1, it formed a pair of offensive / defensive weapons, and this combination is used to this day.

Whatever it was, but only 15 years later, the development of a new pair of grenades began, which would fully meet the requirements of the new time. In general, the RGO grenade appeared. But to say is not to do. In fact, the history of its development was long.

What did the existing models not suit the military?

Most of all the discontent caused fuse. He performed his functions perfectly, but only a fixed time from throw to blast often reduced the effectiveness of the application to zero. The enemy knew the characteristics of the hand grenades used as well as the Soviet soldiers, and so often managed to take cover, or even throw the "lemon" back.

That is why the military had a legitimate desire: to obtain such an example of weapons that could explode not only after a fixed period of time, but simply in contact with the target (mountain grenades). In this case, the opponents would have few chances to take cover in time.

Start of development

Work started back in the early 70-ies of the last century. But really, the immediate pace of research went right after the start of the campaign in Afghanistan. Already in the first months it turned out that hand grenades available are often much more dangerous for the thrower than for the opponent. The design was assigned to the famous KB "Basalt".

So what are the TTX grenades of the RGO? Let's discuss this issue in more detail.

New type of fuse

As we have already said, the main claims relate to this particular detail. It was necessary to create a new scheme urgently. As a result of the work, a shock-remote fuse appeared. From the title it is clear that the grenade of the RGO, equipped with such a fuse, can explode not only through the required time, but also by direct contact with the target.

Fuse construction

If we discuss the construction of this part, then we can distinguish four main parts:

• Initiation-protective. It includes a drummer, a lever, a check and a spring.
• Pyrotechnic. It consists of an impact capsule, retarders and a detonator of self-destruction.
• Mechanical. It includes an inertia weight, a primer and a safety catch.
• Detonation. Powered by a radiant igniter.

How does this design work?

The soldier presses the safety lever, then pulls the check (after unrolling the safety barbels), and then the grenade of the RGO rushes towards the enemy. Immediately after that, the released drummer breaks from his seat.

He hits the ignition primer, which detonates, and sets two retarders and a detonator of self-destruction. After this, the fuse is sideways, and brings the igniter to the detonator. The grenade is ready for an explosion.

Other improvements

But the claims to the old F-1 had another reason. Remember the neatly divided into 32 segments of the shirt of this grenade? So, in the explosion, they are not always divided. All this leads to the fact that the grenade is extremely dangerous and for the thrower: some large pieces may fly off to tens of meters. The new grenade of the RGO was initially calculated to have its shirt torn into many small, stable fragments.

For this, the hull hemispheres are produced by the method of cold stamping of sheet steel. Unlike F-1, RGO - a grenade, which has an inner riffle of the shirt. In addition, inside there are two more steel hemispheres, also divided into small segments. Simply put, the number of fragments has doubled.

Since it is very similar to the RGN (offensive version), the designers provided for a number of distinctive features, so that the fighter, even in the dark and to touch, could determine the type of weapon. Thus, the lower hemisphere has a number of shallow grooves.

Explosive

Unlike previous models, as the "active substance" the designers chose a mixture of hexogen and TNT. There were two reasons for this at once. First, the hexogen gives a greater explosion power. Secondly, TNT in the form of a melt is extremely convenient to simply pour into the shell, which makes the manufacture of an already not too simple grenade cheaper.

In the frozen charge, a cavity designed for fuse was simply and quickly drilled. In addition, the use of a large amount of plastic in the construction of the grenade made it possible, if necessary, to assemble the shells and equip them with the same A-IX-1 (this is also a hexogen, but with the addition of a special plastic filler).

Weight and other characteristics

In general, the RGO - a grenade is not an easy one. In ready to use form it weighs exactly 530 grams. Please note that only 91 grams remain on the charge of the explosive itself. But it was not so by accident.

In the explosion, it gives up to seven hundred fragments, and each weighs less than 0.5 grams! But they fly with a speed, sometimes exceeding 1300 m / s. The energy of this "small thing" is such that the fragments can hit the enemy's living force in a radius of 240 square meters.

Radius of defeat

Strangely enough, but officially declared zone of confident defeat - only 16-17 meters. However, at this distance, the hand grenade of the RGO is an order of magnitude more effective than all its predecessors. This is a matter of the simplest of mathematics: it is easy to assume that a large number of small, high-energy, destructive elements are much more dangerous than 32 large pieces (and, indeed, not the fact that there really will be so many).

In addition, they lose their destructive effect much faster, and therefore it is much safer for a soldier who throws a grenade.

Varieties and packaging

Grenades RGO and RGN were produced in several variants, which is quite typical for the arms industry of the USSR. So, according to generally accepted rules, the fighting had olive green color, while the training ones were black. The delivery is standard, in wooden boxes of 20 pieces. Since the shape of these garnets is almost spherical, the packaging turned out to be very compact.

In boxes they were stacked in two layers, shifting each with a soft cloth material. It should be taken into account that the boxes also had a side compartment intended for laying fuses. They were placed in a completely sealed metal container. The total weight of such a box is 22 kilograms.

So what's the result?

The first parties of the RGO and the RGN were sent to Afghanistan, where they were used in battles with the Mujahideen. Soviet soldiers highly appreciated their characteristics. However, like their colleagues from the federal forces in the course of both Chechen campaigns. But in all thirty years these grenades have not been able to displace their predecessors.

There are several factors that contributed to this state of affairs. First, even the relatively "young" RGD-5 was much easier to produce, not to mention the "lemonade" F-1, the release of which continued even in the war years. Accordingly, the old grenades were much cheaper. Secondly, in the 80s, a huge amount of old weapons accumulated in warehouses, which would take a very long time to expend it.

Finally, Gorbachev soon came to power, in which even aircraft carriers were sawing for scrap. It is not surprising that the production of new types of grenades was almost completely canceled. So in the arsenal of the Russian army and to this day are the "grandfathers" of the domestic military industry. Yes, the RGO and the RGN continue to produce, but the volume of production would not be hampered several times.

Of course, if, from the time of adoption, the normal release of them would be deployed ... But for some reason this did not happen. Most likely, the military leadership of the USSR also believed that first it was necessary to fully consume the old reserves, which would be unreasonable and too expensive to dispose of.

Who is used now?

Currently, they are used almost exclusively by special forces. They are extremely important for the presence of grenades, equipped with a shock fuse. Indeed, it was during the storming of buildings, which was especially frequent in the 1990s, that all the advantages of this weapon manifested itself most vividly.

Thus, the RGO literally covers the space of the room with small, highly impulsive elements. Chances of the enemy is almost none, since from the throw to the explosion are only a fraction of a second. It remains only to hope that modern grenades with more advanced characteristics will eventually appear in service with the rank-and-file units of the Russian Armed Forces. So far, soldiers have to settle for old patterns.

disadvantages

There are also negative sides. Some army old-timers remember that there were attempts to introduce the RGOs in the conventional units. Here only cases were different ... So, there are several self-explosions: badly trained fighters throw a grenade, that touches some small obstacle in a couple of meters from the thrower ... Explosion, a corpse.

In short, grenades with a percussion fuze require good training and accuracy of personnel.

Where can I see?

If you are interested in this type of weapon, we advise you to "take communion" with some strikeball club, which is practically in every major city. Surely at least in some there is a grenade RGO UTI. In fact, it is an army training option, but made entirely of plastic, without any damaging elements.

This props (photo above) one into one copies the look of his combat ancestor. Of course, RGO airsoft grenades can not give a true idea of the capabilities of a real prototype, but you can develop skills for handling it.

So, even in the game version before the cast, you need to repeat all the actions that are required in reality: to bend the mustache, to press the safety lever and pull out the check.