In 1954 the Soviet Army received a new grenade, the RGD-5. It was much more convenient and reliable than the RG-42 adopted at that time, and therefore quickly took its place. Together with the old F-1, she formed a pair of offensive / defensive weapons, and this combination is used to this day.
Be that as it may, 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, this is how the RGS grenade appeared. But to say is not to do. In fact, the history of its development was long.
What did the military not like about the existing designs?
Most of all dissatisfaction caused a fuse. He performed his functions perfectly, only the fixed time from the throw to the explosion often reduced the effectiveness of the application to zero. The enemy, no worse than the Soviet soldiers, knew the characteristics of the hand grenades used, and therefore often managed to take cover, or even throw the “lemon” back.
Therefore, the military had a natural desire: to get such a sample of weapons that could explode not only after a fixed period of time, but simply upon contact with the target (mountain grenades). In this case, the opponents would have little chance to take cover in time.
Begin development
The work started back in the early 70s of the last century. But the research went on at a really urgent pace immediately after the start of the campaign in Afghanistan. Already in the first months it became clear that the hand grenades available are often much more dangerous for the thrower himself than for the enemy. The design was entrusted to the famous design bureau "Bas alt".
So what are the performance characteristics of the RGS grenades? Let's discuss this issue in a little more detail.
New fuse type
As we have already said, the main complaints concerned this particular detail. It was necessary to urgently create a new scheme. As a result of the work, a shock-remote fuse appeared. From the name it is clear that an RGO grenade equipped with such a fuse can explode not only after the required time, but also upon direct contact with the target.
Design fuse
If we discuss the design of this part, then it can be divided into four main parts:
- Initiating-safety. It consists of a drummer, lever, pin and spring.
- Pyrotechnic. Consists of a percussion cap, retarders and a self-destruct detonator.
- Mechanical. It includes an inertial weight, primer and fuse.
- Detonation. Powered by a beam igniter.
How does this design work?
Soldier presses the safety lever, then pulls the pin (having previously unbent the safety antennae), and thenRGS grenade rushes towards the enemy. Immediately afterwards, the freed drummer takes off from his seat.
He hits the igniter primer, which detonates and ignites two retarders and a self-detonator. After that, the fuse goes to the side, and brings the igniter to the detonator. The grenade is ready to explode.
Other improvements
But the complaints about the old F-1 had another reason. Remember this grenade's neatly divided 32-segmented cutter? So, during an explosion, they are far from always separated. All this leads to the fact that the grenade is extremely dangerous for the thrower: individual large pieces can fly tens of meters away. The new RGO grenade was originally designed to have its shirt torn into many small stable fragments.
For this hemispheres of the body are produced by cold stamping from sheet steel. Unlike the F-1, the RGO is a grenade with an internal corrugation of the shirt. In addition, there are two more steel hemispheres inside, also divided into small segments. Simply put, the number of shards has doubled.
Since it is very similar to the RGN (offensive variety), the designers provided a number of distinctive features so that the fighter, even in the dark and by touch, could determine the type of weapon. Thus, the lower hemisphere has a series of shallow grooves.
Explosive
Unlike previous models, the designers chose a mixture of RDX and TNT as the "active substance". There were two reasons for this. In-First, hexogen gives a large explosion power. Secondly, TNT in the form of a melt is extremely convenient to simply pour into the case, which reduces the cost of production of an already not too simple grenade.
In the frozen charge, a cavity intended for the fuse was simply and quickly drilled out. In addition, the use of a large amount of plastic in the design of the grenade made it possible, if necessary, to assemble cases and equip them with the same A-IX-1 (this is also RDX, but with the addition of a special plastic filler).
Weight and other specifications
In general, the Russian Geographical Society is not an easy grenade. In a ready-to-use form, it weighs exactly 530 grams. Please note that only 91 grams remain for the charge of the explosive itself. But it was not done by chance.
When it explodes, it immediately gives up to seven hundred fragments, and the weight of each does not even reach 0.5 grams! But they fly at a speed sometimes exceeding 1300 m / s. The energy of this "small things" is such that the fragments can hit the enemy's manpower within a radius of 240 square meters.
Destruction radius
Oddly enough, but the officially declared zone of confident defeat is only 16-17 meters. However, at this distance, the RGO hand grenade acts an order of magnitude more efficiently than all its predecessors. This is a matter of simple mathematics: it is easy to assume that a large number of small damaging elements with high energy are much more dangerous than 32 large pieces (and it’s not a fact that there will really be so many of them).
Besides, they are muchlose their damaging effect faster, and therefore much safer for the soldier who throws the grenade.
Varieties and packaging
RGO and RGN grenades were produced in several versions, which is quite typical for the arms industry of the USSR. So, according to generally accepted rules, the combat ones had an olive-green color, while the training ones were black. Delivery is standard, in wooden boxes of 20 pieces. Since the shape of these grenades is almost spherical, the packaging was very compact.
They were placed in boxes in two layers, shifting each with soft fabric material. It should be noted that the boxes also had a side compartment designed 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 very first batches of the RGS and RGN were sent to Afghanistan, where they began to be used in battles with the Mujahideen. Soviet soldiers highly appreciated their performance. However, like their counterparts from the federal forces during both Chechen campaigns. But for all thirty years, these grenades have not been able to displace their predecessors.
There are several factors that contributed to this state of affairs. Firstly, even the relatively "young" RGD-5 was much easier to manufacture, not to mention the "lemon" F-1, the production of which continued even during the war years. Accordingly, the old grenades were much cheaper. Secondly, in the 80s, such a colossal amount of old weapons accumulated in warehouses that for himit would take a very long time to use up.
Finally, soon Gorbachev came to power, under which even aircraft carriers were sawed for scrap. It is not surprising that the production of new types of grenades was almost completely curtailed. So, to this day, the “grandfathers” of the domestic military industry are in service with the Russian army. Yes, the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Geographical Society continue to produce, but it would not hurt to increase the production volume several times.
Of course, if from the time they were put into service, their normal production would have been deployed … But for some reason this did not happen. Most likely, the military leadership of the USSR also believed that the old stocks should be completely used up first, which would be simply unreasonable and too expensive to dispose of.
Currently used by whom?
Currently, they are used almost exclusively by special forces. It is extremely important for them to have grenades equipped with a shock fuse. After all, it was during the assault on buildings, which happened especially often in the 90s, that all the advantages of this weapon were manifested most clearly.
So, the Russian Geographical Society literally dotted the space of the room with small high-impulse submunitions. The enemy has practically no chances, since only a few fractions of a second pass from the throw to the explosion. One can only hope that modern grenades with more advanced characteristics will eventually appear in service with ordinary units of the RF Armed Forces. So far, the soldiers have to be content with the old models.
Flaws
There are also negativesides. Some army old-timers recall that there were attempts to introduce the Russian Geographical Society in ordinary units. But there were different cases … So, several self-explosions were recorded: poorly trained fighters throw a grenade, it touches some small obstacle a couple of meters from the thrower … Explosion, corpse.
In a word, percussion grenades require good training and accuracy of personnel.
Where can I see it?
If you are interested in this type of weapon, we advise you to "participate" in some airsoft club, which are in almost every major city. Surely at least in some there is a grenade of the RGO UTI. In fact, this is a military training version, but made entirely of plastic, without any damaging elements.
This props (photo above) one to one copies the appearance of its military ancestor. Of course, RGO airsoft grenades cannot give a true idea of the capabilities of a real prototype, but you can develop skills in handling it.
So, even in the game version, before throwing, you need to repeat all the actions that are required in reality: bend the antennae, press the safety lever and pull the pin.
