individual rocket launcher and recoilless artillery are both "cannons" in the hands of soldiers. They flourished in World War II, allowing ordinary soldiers to have sufficient counterattacks against tanks. For example, the German "Iron Fist" during World War II, the American "Bazooka", and the British PIAT are all such weapons.
Iron Fist is a recoilless gun, Bazooka is a rocket launcher, and PIAT is a spring-powered projectile. Bazooka is also the originator of modern individual rocket launchers, and is synonymous with rocket launchers in the US military.
▲ German "Iron Fist"
After World War II, individual anti-armor weapons have continued to develop, and the team has grown stronger and stronger, playing an important role in various fields such as anti-tank, anti-armor, anti-fortification, killing living targets, and special operations. RGP-7, together with the AK-47 assault rifle and the 107mm rocket launcher, have become the three major artifacts of world guerrilla warfare.
▲The American "Bazooka" bazooka
recoilless gun and bazooka were very clear when they were born.
1. Recoilless guns are developed from artillery. The propellant burns quickly in the chamber to produce high-temperature and high-pressure gas expansion to push the projectiles out. In order to reduce the recoil force, the Davis balanced ejection principle is adopted. The gas pushes the projectile forward and at the same time throws a balance body with the same mass as the projectile to the rear, which offsets part of the recoil force and enables individual soldiers to launch on their shoulders.
▲The principle of Davis's balanced ejection
2, the secret of the rocket launcher is all on the rocket. There is a rocket fire motive in the projectile body. After firing, the gunpowder burns to produce high-pressure gas jetting backwards, and the projectile body is pushed out by the reaction force. The principle is the same as that of launch vehicles and rocket launchers.
▲Rocket structure The
launch barrel itself only plays the role of guiding, positioning and protecting the rocket. A single rocket can be launched with a rail or placed on flat ground, but the accuracy is much worse. The famous "Katyusha" rocket launcher in World War II was launched on the rails. The Bazooka rocket launcher can independently take out the rockets and use them as anti-tank mines. The current 107mm rockets can also be launched on the ground.
In addition, the pressure of the launch tube of these two weapons is different. The outer cylinder of the recoilless gun has to withstand the huge chamber pressure when the gunpowder burns instantaneously, and must be fired repeatedly, so it must be durable and burn-resistant, and it is mostly made of metal, alloy steel and other materials. Part of the recoilless gun barrel is also engraved with rifling, which can increase the range and accuracy.
, such as the Swedish Carl Gustaf recoilless gun, has a strong and heavy steel barrel and rifling in the barrel.
▲The rifling of the US military M3E1. The Gustav export model
rocket launcher has an engine on the rocket. The launcher does not withstand huge bore pressure, so it can be made of lightweight materials such as fiberglass and aluminum alloy to reduce weight and reduce the burden on soldiers. . For example, the American M72 LAW rocket launcher, the outer tube is made of glass fiber impregnated with epoxy resin, and it can be thrown away when it is used up in one launch. According to this, the Soviet Union imitated disposable portable rocket launchers such as RPG-18 and RPG-26, and the effect was also very good.
▲The American M72 LAW rocket launcher
, relatively speaking, the recoilless gun has a longer range, better accuracy, can be reloaded, has a variety of shells, and is cheap. The disadvantage is that the caliber is limited by the weight and the barrel is heavy.
After World War II, the two weapons merged with each other, and the concept gradually became blurred.
With the development of technology, some ambiguous products have emerged from the integration of two individual weapons. For example, the well-known РПГ (RPG) series of individual portable anti-armor weapons in the Soviet Union, its Russian Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт originally meant "hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher" and did not have the meaning of a rocket launcher.
was later transcribed into Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomyot in Latin in Western countries, and understood it as Rocket-Propelled Grenade (Rocket-Propelled Grenade), thus calling the entire series of RPGs into rocket launchers. In fact, the RGP series has both the rocket launcher principle and the recoilless gun principle. It is not accurate to use a single classification name.
▲RPG-2 and PG-2 armor-piercing projectile
RPG-1 is an imitation of Germany""Iron Fist" came from, it is a recoilless gun. RPG-2 is also a recoilless gun. Its 80mm PG-2 armor-piercing round is composed of warhead, fuze, stabilizer tail and propellant. The black propellant is wrapped in a paper pharmaceutical column, The confetti burns and ejects from the end of the tube during launch.
▲PG-2 type ammunition has propellant, no rocket engine
China’s 51-type rocket launcher imitation American bazooka is called the rocket launcher. After the introduction of RPG-2 from the Soviet Union, The 51-type rocket launcher was named as the 56-type 40mm rocket launcher, which is an extension of historical custom.
Later, the Soviet Union developed a more powerful РПГ-7 handheld anti-tank grenade launcher, which is still called RPG-7 rocket launcher by various countries. .Z1z
▲RPG-7 rocket launcher
is a special launcher that combines the characteristics of recoilless guns and rocket launchers. A rocket extended range engine is added in the middle of the rocket, and the range is increased with 6 reverse flow micro-rotating nozzles. The tail of the projectile. Threaded stabilized tail and paper launch tube, the propellant is changed from black powder to nitroglycerin double-base propellant. When
pulls the trigger, the propellant is ignited first, and the rocket is pushed out of the barrel. After flying out 10-14 meters, the projectile The tail fuze extension insurance is opened, and the rocket engine starts to push the rocket to continue flying.
▲ has booster section and rocket engine
. However, RPG-7 is not a rocket launcher. It is still a recoilless gun launching principle. Flying out of the outer barrel is the result of the propellant. .Extended range rocket engine is added to the projectile body. The principle is the same as that of rocket extended range shells fired by large-caliber howitzers. The output of
RPG-7 is amazing, and the figure quickly spread to all corners of the world, basically becoming synonymous with rocket launchers, which is a beautiful misunderstanding. After being introduced into China, it was improved into a 69-type 40mm rocket launcher, which is also a star product.
So there are both recoilless gun models and bazooka models in the RGP series. RPG-18, RPG-26, RPG-29, etc. are standard rocket launchers. Among them, RPG The 105mm armor-piercing rocket of -29 can destroy the third-generation main battle tank, which is very cost-effective.
▲The huge RPG-29 and rocket
individual anti-armor weapons of Western countries are also constantly fusing, Karl Gusta The recoilless gun also began to launch rocket-extended-range projectiles, with a range extending to 2000 meters. The new projectiles have also added a laser guidance device, which has greatly improved the accuracy, which is close to anti-tank missiles, but the price is much cheaper.
▲Gustav gun and Abundant types of ammunition
Although the AT-4 (M136 type), which is heavily equipped by the US Army, is called a rocket launcher, its launch method is based on the recoilless gun principle. There is no rocket engine on the projectile and it is propelled by propellant.
So in general, The fundamental difference between a recoil gun and a rocket launcher is that the basic launch principle is different, and whether there is an extended range rocket boost in the middle is not the point.
In fact, most rocket engines do not work midway, and fly by inertia. In order to reduce the burns caused by the tail flame to the shooter, many rocket engines only work for one or two seconds before they burn out in the launch tube. Talk about originality in a gentle manner, and plagiarism is prohibited.
▲AT-4 (M136 type) rocket launcher
is like howitzer and cannon. Although the firing principle is the same, the core difference is ballistics. The two are also fused into a howitzer, which produces different trajectories by adding or subtracting propellant packs. Howitzers and mortars are also integrated into mortars, which can achieve direct and indirect aiming capabilities through different firing angles and multiple shells.
Today, many weapons have been cross-border developed into multi-functional universal platforms. The original names are inherited from history and no longer represent their true origins. Everyone agrees to know what it means, and there is no way to classify them completely. After all, portable anti-tank missiles are developing rapidly. Who cares about these old guys?
talks about original texts in harmony, welcome to pay attention. The picture comes from the Internet, personal opinion, for reference only.
