In 1954, the Soviet army received a new grenade, 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.
Anyway, 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 a long one.
What did not suit the military existing models?
Most of all dissatisfaction caused a fuse. He performed his functions perfectly, but only a fixed time from a throw to an explosion often reduced the effectiveness of the application to zero. The enemy was no worse than the Soviet soldiers knew the characteristics of the hand grenades used, and therefore often managed to hide, or even throw a "lemon" back.
And 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 by contact with the target (mountain grenades). In this case, the opponents would have little chance to take cover in time.
Development start
The work started back in the early 70s of the last century. But the research really began at an extraordinary pace right after the start of the campaign in Afghanistan. Already in the first months it became clear that the available hand grenades are often much more dangerous for the thrower than for the enemy. Design entrusted to the famous Design Bureau "Basalt".
So what are the TTX grenades of the RGO? Let's discuss this issue in more detail.
New type of fuse
As we already said, the main complaints concerned this particular detail. It was urgent to create a new scheme. As a result of the work, a shock-remote fuse appeared. From the name it is clear that the RGO grenade equipped with such a fuse can explode not only after the required time, but also in direct contact with the target.
Fuse design
If we discuss the design of this part, then it can distinguish four main parts:
- Initiative safety. It includes a drummer, lever, pin and spring.
- Pyrotechnic. Consists of a shock capsule, moderators and a self-destruction detonator.
- Mechanical It includes an inertial weight, a capsule and a fuse.
- Detonation. Powered by a beam igniter.
How does this design work?
The soldier presses the safety lever, then pulls out the pin (after having unbent the safety antennae), and then the RGO grenade rushes towards the enemy. Immediately after this, the freed drummer breaks from his place.
He hits the flaming capsule, which detonates, and sets fire to two moderators and a self-destruction detonator. After that, the fuse goes to the side, and brings the igniter to the detonator. The grenade is ready for an explosion.
Other improvements
But claims to the old F-1 had another reason. Remember the grenade of this grenade neatly divided into 32 segments? So, in the 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 away tens of meters. The new RGO grenade was originally calculated to have its shirt torn into many small, stable fragments.
For this, the hemispheres of the body are produced by cold stamping from sheet steel. Unlike the F-1, the RGO is a grenade with internal corrugation 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 RGN (offensive variety), the designers have provided a number of distinctive features, so that the fighter even in the dark and to the touch could determine the type of weapon. So, the lower hemisphere has a number of shallow grooves.
Explosive
Unlike previous models, designers chose a mixture of RDX and TNT as the “active substance”. There were two reasons for this at once. Firstly, RDX gives a large explosion power. Secondly, TNT in the form of a melt is extremely convenient to simply pour into the body, which makes the production of an already not very 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 grenade design made it possible, if necessary, to assemble the hulls and equip them with the same A-IX-1 (this is also hexogen, but with the addition of a special plastic filler).
Weight and other specifications
In general, the Russian Geographical Society is not a light grenade. Ready to use, it weighs exactly 530 grams. Please note that only 91 grams remain on the charge of the explosive itself. But this was not done by chance.
In the explosion, it gives immediately up to seven hundred fragments, and the weight of each does not reach up to 0.5 grams! But they fly at a speed sometimes exceeding 1300 m / s. The energy of this “small thing” is such that fragments can hit the enemy’s manpower in a radius of 240 square meters.
Defeat radius
Oddly enough, but the officially declared zone of certain 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 striking elements with high energy are much more dangerous than 32 large pieces (and it is not a fact that there really will be so many).
In addition, they lose their damaging effect much faster, and therefore it is much safer for a soldier who throws a 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 were olive green, while the training ones were black. Standard delivery, in wooden boxes of 20 pieces. Since the shape of these grenades is almost spherical, the packaging turned out to be very compact.
They were placed in boxes in two layers, each shifting with soft fabric material. It should be noted that the boxes also had a side compartment designed for stacking fuses. They fit into a completely sealed metal container. The total weight of such a box is 22 kilograms.
So what is the result?
The very first shipments of the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Humanitarian Republic were sent to Afghanistan, where they began to use them in battles with the Mujahideen. Soviet soldiers praised their characteristics. However, like their colleagues from the federal forces during both Chechen campaigns. But for all thirty years, these grenades have not been able to supplant 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 in the war years. Accordingly, the old grenades were much cheaper. Secondly, in the 80s there was such a huge amount of old weapons in warehouses that it would take a lot of time to use it up.
Finally, Gorbachev soon came to power, in which even aircraft carriers sawed for scrap. It is not surprising that the production of new types of grenades was almost completely curtailed. So the “grandfathers” of the Russian military industry are still in service with the Russian army. Yes, RGO and RGN continue to produce, but the production volume would not hurt to increase several times.
Of course, if their normal release had been deployed from the time of adoption … But for some reason this never happened. Most likely, the military leadership of the USSR also believed that, first, old stocks should be completely exhausted, which would simply be unreasonable and too expensive to dispose of.
Who is currently using?
Currently, they are used almost exclusively by special forces. It is extremely important for them to have grenades equipped with an impact fuse. After all, it was during the storming of buildings, which was especially common in the 90s, that all the advantages of this weapon were manifested most vividly.
So, the RGO literally strews the space of the room with small high-pulse damaging elements. The enemy has practically no chances, since a fraction of a second passes from a throw to an explosion. One can only hope that modern grenades with more advanced characteristics will eventually appear in the arsenal of ordinary units of the RF Armed Forces. So far, soldiers have to be content with old models.
disadvantages
There are also negative sides. Some army old-timers recall that there were attempts to introduce RGOs 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 … An explosion, a corpse.
In a word, grenades with a shock fuse require good training and accuracy of personnel.
