Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
RPG-7 is not like RPG-7. They come in a wide variety of models, from "old" to "recent". The most recent ones you do not want to get hit by.
Then: urban warfare, infantry firing at tanks from elevated positions. Russian tanks find it difficult to elevate their guns that much so that they can aim fighters on roofs and close by, they learned that the hard way both in Chechnya and again in Georgia. But fighters have fun firing RPGs onto tanks' roofs.
And in infantry fights I assume even an old RPG-7 is bad news for the receiver.
And Russians selling crap, well, their AAMs and ATGMs I do respect. Some of them are really extremely lethal.
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You are correct in this assumption though the term old a new is not really accurate.
The RPG is a family like any other modern weapon it improves over time like the M-16 for example since 1965 there has been M-16E1,M-16A1,M-16A2,M-16A4 (the A3 is a low production fully auto A2).The same goes for the RPG-7 which actually began life as the RPG-3.
The RPG-7 remains effective on a modern battlefield because the warheads desgined for use with it are always being developed and improved.
So a skilled RPG gunner and more so a skilled unit that has RPG men it its ranks can be very dangerous indeed to infantry.The Taliban become big fans of using RPG-7s with anti personnel warheads and PKMs against ISAF forces.They used these two weapons because they allowed for attack outside of the effective range of 5.56mm ammo but still allowed the Taliban to cause serious damage.They would have several men volley fire RPGs as an indirect fire weapon and then further try to pin down troops with the PKM LMG fire as soon as the enemy force began to counter attack they would disengage before air assets could arrive.
A few US military officers have actually written papers about the threat that RPGs generate and the fact that the US military does not have truly a direct counter to the RPG.Read a little about the AT-4 and related rockets they are much less reliable than RPGs not to mention their one time use weakness the RRPG also is much more deadly than an M203 or the M383, M384(used by the Mk.19 which of course is not deployable by one man) .
Even the Rand corporation did studies of NVA and VC POWs and found that they considered the RPG/B-40 to be there most effective weapon against US troops.
Here is an article about the Advantages of the RPG and areas of weakness in our doctrine.
http://www.combatreform.org/ttprpg.htm