Russian Ground Forces: News #2

The special units of the Russian army will be armed with the legendary SPG-9 grenade launchers "Kopje". In Syria, they demonstrated high efficiency against field fortifications and enemy manpower. Thanks to the long range and high accuracy of the shooting, these recoilless guns proved to be a suitable means for dueling with enemy grenade launchers. In this case, one shot for LNG-9 is much cheaper than an anti-tank guided missile. The grenade launcher will undergo modernization - will receive a modern night sight and more powerful ammunition.


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As "Izvestia" was told in the Defense Ministry, the anti-tank grenade launchers of the SPG-9 plan to return to the arsenal of special units. They will undergo modernization and will be used to combat manpower and suppress enemy firing points.

During the Syrian campaign, militants actively used grenade launchers of Western production - Carl Gustav and PanzerFaust. For their suppression of the range of shooting conventional RPG-7 was not enough. But the enemy was coping well with the LNG-9, which were in service with the Syrian army.

Initially, these products, adopted in service in 1963, were intended to combat armored vehicles. The cumulative grenade PG-9V has decent indicators of armor penetration - 300 mm. Later, for SPG-9, a fragmentation grenade was developed. The firing range of the "Spear" when it is used is about a kilometer.

The LNG-9 is distinguished by a fairly high rate of fire - up to six rounds per minute. This is due to the fact that it is easy to recharge, and the gunner does not need to wait until the grenade hits the target. Shooting from the "Spear" does not require long preparation, the treatment of these weapons can be trained all the fighters. If necessary, the grenade launcher is disassembled and transferred by calculation forces. If, at the same time, to distribute at least two shots to all the soldiers, then one unit will have a very solid ammunition.

Since the late 1980s, the "Spears" have gradually begun to give way to anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) - the power of standard shots was not enough to break through the armor of modern tanks. However, ATGMs are quite expensive, so recoilless guns have remained very popular in developing countries.

Military expert Oleg Zheltonozhko told Izvestia that such weapons are in high demand in conditions of local conflicts, when military operations are conducted by small highly mobile detachments. Special forces have to deal with a well-armed and prepared enemy, so they need additional firepower.

"The militants receive the latest foreign weapons, they learned to dig in and equip positions, so the special forces need means of reinforcement, the same trench artillery," Oleg Zheltonozhko explained. - Due to the more powerful ammunition, the SPG-9 easily affects from a greater distance even the concrete reinforcements. In disassembled form, it can be transported by jeep or an armored car "Tiger", carried by a group of soldiers.

The Pentagon is also actively returning to the old grenade launchers - the Swedish Carl Gustav. In the 1980s, they were purchased for ranger battalions, later replaced with anti-tank missiles. However, in Afghanistan, the US military carried heavy losses from the exact fire of the RPG-7 grenade launchers, which the detachments of the banned Taliban movement in Russia were actively using. ATGMs could not effectively deal with such a threat. The Pentagon decided to give out to the special forces, infantry and airborne troops, operating in Afghanistan, grenade launchers. Carl Gustav have proved their effectiveness. Therefore, now the US military uses them everywhere in Afghanistan and Iraq.  

GarryB wrote:With modern optics and a fire control system to calculate the path of the round even dumb cheap rounds can be rather effective... this is a bit like fitting a Gefest &T package to an old recoilless rocket launcher to make a cheap weapon as accurate and as useful as a much more expensive guided weapon...

GarryB wrote:

My understanding is that the RPO-M has a range of about 800m with a max range of about 1.7km and would therefore fill the role of unguided HE weapon to out shoot the Carl Gustav and Panzerfaust while being portable and relatively cheap.

I rather suspect the rounds would be smaller and lighter and more portable than the SPG-9 rounds.

At the moment I think the RPO-M has only a thermobaric warhead but it would be easy enough to develop HE and other warheads for this 90mm calibr

flamming_python wrote:

JohninMK wrote:Spotted this. No idea how old the picture is but the officer on the right looks very familiar albeit much younger then

It's Gerasimov.

Hole wrote:Sure, but... How can someone fool himself in such a way? The whole doctrin of the armed forces of Amiland is: drop a bomb on it! Than you go around and claim that your Army is the best? Ridiculous.

Hole wrote:Using nucelar weapons is NATO tactic from the beginning.

The fight against Japan was mostly air and sea battles. At the end of the war Russia was fighting more Japanese (in China) than Amiland had ever met in their battles.