In the defense industry, this is always the case: someone creates an airplane, and in return receives an anti-aircraft gun. Then an attack aircraft appears and destroys the ground gun, freeing the way for the bombers. This goes on forever. The tank is well-armored - nothing, there will be an armor-piercing shell. An additional active defense was put on the armor, fighting off the means of destruction, but this is not the end. They’ll certainly come up with something to break through. The modern Russian grenade launcher can just serve as an example of such an answer to the answer. RPG-29, whose photo flashed on the screens more often than images of pop stars and famous film artists, became famous after several cases of successful use against American and Israeli tanks, famous for their resistance to armor-piercing weapons.
Cumulative shells and active armor
Cumulative ammunition confidently burn through even very thick armor. In the past two decades, the design idea of the creators of armored vehicles has found a way to protect tanks from this terrible weapon. Was developed the so-called active armor protection, operating on a paradoxical principle. When a cumulative projectile hits it, it creates a small explosion, dispersing a sharply directed stream of hot gas, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of the lesion. According to all the laws of the arms race, every defense requires funds to overcome it. Since the RPG-7 and RPG-16 anti-tank grenade launchers in service were no longer able to break through the protection of modern tanks of countries - potential opponents, something new was required. V.S. Tokarev led the design team, whose task was specific: to make a compact system that can burn through active armor. Our engineers got along with the task; they created the RPG-29 Vampire. The name does not have a relation to Count Dracula ; rather, it corresponds to the biological species of bats acting in the dark ruthlessly and imperceptibly.
Operating principle
The grenade launcher - it is the grenade launcher, it is difficult to think of something new in the basic arrangement of the launch tube. It's all about the shell that flies out of the RPG-29. It has a tandem scheme, that is, its warhead consists, in turn, of two parts. The first, leading, activates anticumulative defense, a charge whose purpose is to destroy the directed plasma jet. After that, the armor metal is exposed, and the main part of the charge, cumulative, comes into effect. Thanks to this “two in one” principle, the RPG-29 can penetrate a homogeneous high-quality armor with a layer thicker than 60 cm. This remarkable grenade is called PG-29V, its caliber is 105 mm.
Of course, this is so simple in words, but in the practical implementation of this seemingly simple principle, many technical problems arose that had to be solved as they arrived. A double charge could explode at a time, but a delay was required, and the tests themselves presented surprises, and not always pleasant ones. Despite many difficulties, the RPG-29 was ready and adopted by the Soviet Army by 1989.
Grenade engine
In addition to the main and leading charges, the grenade is equipped with a solid-fuel jet engine, which is activated by an electric igniter through an annular contact on the tail of the projectile. Its body is made of fiberglass (there is a steel version, but the polymer is lighter). Flight stabilization is provided by eight blades that open after the grenade leaves the barrel. There is no active flight section, which makes it difficult to detect a launch point.
TTD
RPG-29 is a compact weapon; it takes up very little space in a transport case, just a meter in length. It also weighs a little, a little more than five kilograms, plus a pomegranate - another seven kilograms. You can shoot both night and day, and in addition to destroying armored vehicles, you can solve the problem of resistance to infantry fortifications, destroy bunkers, bunkers and dugouts, for this there is also a thermobaric ammunition TBG-29V. The effective range of aimed fire on a fixed target is half a kilometer, on a moving one - 300 meters. The length of the grenade launcher when assembled is 1 meter 85 cm.
The calculation consists of two fighters, but the experience of using in Syria (against government forces) and Iraq (against the US army) proves that if necessary, one person can cope if he can carry two bags: one with PU, the other with three grenades .
The fate of the grenade launcher
Paradoxically, with all its advantages in Russia, this powerful weapon was practically not used. The fact is that, thanks to God, there is no need to destroy enemy tanks on our territory, and if it arose, then this problem could be solved in many ways. The Russian army is armed with ATGMs, and specialized artillery, and combat helicopters, and mines, and much more.
RPG-29 grenade launcher is more suitable for guerrilla-sabotage war, when enemy tanks appear on the streets of captured cities, and they need to be mercilessly burned. This weapon was delivered to two countries - Syria and Mexico, but in some mysterious way it suddenly began to appear in completely different places.
Iraqi rebels, who are not called terrorists by the Western media, successfully used the RPG-29 Vampire against the Abrams, an American tank that was considered almost invulnerable. Footage of the chronicle, in which the armored giant shattered into pieces after the detonation of ammunition, went around the world with comments about the unexpected use of Russian grenade launchers. Well, in war you need to be prepared for everything. In Afghanistan, to the Stingers, for example. And in Iraq to the "Vampires."