RPG-7 Queston

I've been reading "Black Hawk Down" 4 a while now, and came across something. It said that if u were 2 fire a RPG-7 in2 the air, the recoil itself would knock u down, if not kill u. If so, this was suicide. Any1 have any info supporting or dening it?

There isn't a recoil, it's a rocket. The back blast might get a little toasty on your legs.

I`ve fired an 84mm rocket launcher using HEAT RAP rounds, same kind of weapon as the RPG. The only way it would knock you down is if it was pointing straight up and lost your balance. The only way it would kill is if you fired it from the window of a very small room with the door closed where the back blast has no where to go but through you out the window.

Also, the rocket may have been fired from a rooftop, and since the choppers were flying low or inserting troops they could have been on near-horizontal angle from the person firing the weapon.

The RPG-7 can kill you if you fired it straight up. The concussion bouncing off the ground would knock you out at best and kill you at worst. You can't fire it with any walls directly behind you. You can't fire it inside an enclosure (from a normal room) because of concussion rebounding back at you. Basically with RPG-7 and all recoilless weapons the principle is that the gunner is at the very center of a massive ball of compression and all forces of the compression are equal on the gunner and unrestricted in expanding outward thusr leaving the gunner more or less intact. If the concussion can't dissipate due to walls or ground the compressive force will cause boo-boos.

Firing RPG-7 at different angles but not vertical is doable at certain degrees. Also if you fire it from a position that allows space for the backblast to dissipate into open space it's safe to do it. This can be done off edge of rooftops or leaning out a window and firing upward or downward with the aid of a friend or two holding your legs and ass inside.

Originally posted by balrog
There isn't a recoil, it's a rocket. The back blast might get a little toasty on your legs.

It's a recoilless weapon and a rocket. The rocket motor ignites after the round has left the weapon so as not to fry the gunner's face off.

RPG-7 will not kill you. As already said just dont fire it horizontaly. It will give you a good burn.


Out,
Russian

Thanks guys. When I read it, knowing the RPG-7 and all, I was like "WHAT THE???", but this makes more sense now. Tnx again.

RPG-7

The launcher is based around a simple milled steel tube, 40 mm in diameter, 95.3 cm long, and weighing just 7 kg. The middle is wood wrapped to protect the user from heat and the end is flared to assist in blast shielding and recoil reduction. Sighting is usually optical, but both passive infra-red and night-sights are available and an iron sight is always fitted.

As with similar weapons the grenade is over-sized (70 - 85 mm), protruding ahead of the launch tube, and weighing between 2.5 and 4.5 kg. Launch is by a gunpowder booster charge at 115 m/s, which creates a typical tell-tale cloud of light grey/blue smoke. The rocket motor ignites after 10 metres and sustains flight out to 500 metres at a maximum velocity of 295 m/s. The grenade is stablized by two sets of fins that deploy in-flight - one large set on the stablizer pipe to maintain direction and a smaller front set to induce rotation. Maximum range is between 900 and 1100 metres, the fuse sets the maximum range, usually 920 m. The timed detonation has been used to create rough proximity airbursts against helicopters once they have passed the preferred 100 m head-on attack zone.

Accurate firing is difficult over 300 m and with the RPG-7 the phrase "the closer the better" is always true. During the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan the Mujahideen tended to use the weapon at ranges of less than 80 m.