How Rocket-Propelled Grenades Work

HowStuffWorks.com ^ | Shane Speck

[Squantos]

I had the hard work pleasure of destroying 250 cases (16 each case) of old Mk Duce frags once......had to cut the steel bands, open every single case, box and cardboard can and place the frags in a demolition pit on our EOD range.....yeah we tossed a few till our arms hurt for fun but the 3000 pound limit on our range made for a nice shot.

Rule to remember.... if you can see the frag the frag can see you.....:o)

[John Jorsett]

Tossed as in activating the round and throwing it by hand to explode nearby? Like that scene in Saving Private Ryan? That would be ... dramatic.

[Squantos]

Yeah we kept a few cases out after the demo shot and let the new guys function em as designed......we "tossed" em into our prior demolition shot craters around the range. All fun......suprising that there were no duds . The Mk 2 was a good tool if being stored all those decades and in two random cases we kept back didn't have a misfire. Says alot about the quality of simple designs and good workmanship and construction.


Such as the the Mk II and the RPG 7 series tools ..... solid choices for the small team tactics IMO.


Stay safe !

[Squantos]

BTW.......I think your describing the scene where they used the mortar rounds by pulling the fuze pins smacking em on a hard surface for setback and lobbing em over the rubble mound scene aren't ya ? All they had were rounds vs the rounds and the tubes.

Not frags ....mortars as I remember the scene.

[SAJ]

Aha! Another devotee of the Department of Redundancy Department!

[Calvin Locke]

I'm confused. I thought shaped charges lost efficacy when rotating. Hence smooth-bore cannons.

Is this feature a trade-off for accuracy on an RPG?

[dzzrtrock]

What puzzles me is why we spend a $1 billion to build 1 atomic-powered mouse trap instead of building a billion $1, spring-powered mouse traps. We are capturing thousands of these things from the tangos and blowing them up on an EOD range then shooting $15k rockets at the tangos. Why not just dispose of these by returning them to the tangoes in the finest point-and-shoot manner, carefully and lovingly delivered into the first mosque/school/hospital/whatever that fires on our troops? So, Abdul Mohammed Mohumud Abullah Finkelstein (III), you like RPG's? Here's one for you...and another...and another...etc....and about 1,000 rounds of 7.62mm Warsaw pact ammo, freely dispensed from a slew of captured AK-47s....(we fired our cannons 'til the barrels melted down and we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round...)

[Lurker]

I still say our guys need an updated flamethrower.

Roasting a few jihadis where they stand would have a powerful psychological impact on their buddies.

L

[Squantos]

Here's a flash fer ya ..........;o)

http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/infantry/flame/M202.html

Stay safe !

[John Jorsett]

I think your describing the scene where they used the mortar rounds by pulling the fuze pins smacking em on a hard surface for setback and lobbing em over the rubble mound scene aren't ya ? All they had were rounds vs the rounds and the tubes.

Not frags ....mortars as I remember the scene.

Yes, that's the one. I know they didn't have anything like RPGs back then, but the concept of tossing what was intended to be launched made the connection in my mind.

[Lurker]

I remember those things. We fired a few at Pendleton during AIT, but that's the last time I ever saw them.

I wonder if they're actually being issued.

L

[Squantos]

What was most impressive for me was the hand signals the rangers used then and now and was highlighted in that movied between Hanks and his sniper in the church bell tower,.....not many folks have seen that used in war movies.

Stay safe !

[Chode]

do they have a shot trap or do they need blanks to work???

[Squantos]

Archy may know of recent issues......But in all my years of active duty I saw em in training a few times but never saw em carried in SE/SW asia, Grenada, Beruit or Panama arenas.......I've never even seen a ammo dump with those stored.

Not sure of their effect and or load out these days. Last time I saw one was in a Awhuld movie where Tommy Chongs little girl Rae (finda) Dong Chong fired one from a caddy convertable.

Stay safe !

[blackeagle]

bump

[Lurker]

I'd love to see a few of those suckers being lit off on Fox News some night.

Crispy Jihadi anyone?

L

[Casloy]

Great post, learned a lot. Particularly valuable to someone in Iraq.

[ozzymandus]

It all started with the Panzerfaust. I always thought "rocket propelled grenade" was a misnomer, as tbe warhead of an anti-tank rocket has a lot more power than an ordinary hand grenade.

[wolficatZ]

 

    RPG's have been the bane of the US military for a long time now...   (Popular Mechanics, Aug '68)