Renaissance of the “Balkan glass” in the North-West region
“Glass” under RGD-5 in the hands of our soldier in the Northern Military District zone in the footage of the Russian Defense Ministry.
Not long ago, a video appeared in which workers of the Chelyabinsk plant talked about their version of a table-top mortar for firing RGD-5 grenades from Kalashnikov assault rifles of 45 caliber. According to the factory workers, the sample not only has a full factory specification, has passed field and “military” (tested by soldiers in the Northern Military District) tests, but has already been produced in a series of 5 copies. Fifty thousand grenade launchers is already quite a serial production, a serial model.
Transnistrian version of the “glass” for RGD-5 on the AKS-74U.
Such structures have appeared in Donbass since 2014. The militias and volunteers, not spoiled by centralized supplies, naturally tried to acquire any kind of pocket artillery, including this one. There are plenty of videos and photos on the Internet showing various examples of homemade grenade launchers used near Donetsk and Lugansk.
Mortar from Donetsk militias.
The designs are often very different and, if some are mortars for hand grenades, then the second are mortars for VOGs and even the warhead of the ZU-23-2 projectile. At the same time, such structures are not something unique to the current North-Eastern Military District and appeared in the post-Soviet space during the local conflicts that flared up under the USSR. One of the first well-known and, most importantly, quite widespread similar designs is the RGD-5 mortar for the 5,45 caliber Kalashnikov assault rifle, produced in Transnistria.
Another version of the “Balkan Glass” near Donetsk.
And given that the very common slang name for this design is “Balkan Glass,” one can guess that these designs were widely used in conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, where volunteers from the former USSR also had a chance to fight.
Another point where these designs were used en masse by all warring parties was the ongoing conflict in Syria. In one of the videos from Luhansk craftsmen demonstrating their grenade launchers, it was stated that they had spied this design or even directly received it from fighters of the Syrian government forces.
But in this case we are talking about the simplest version of a desktop grenade launcher.
A fighter of pro-government Syrian forces with a homemade grenade launcher.
A device that is screwed on instead of the standard DTK, into which an ordinary hand grenade is inserted and, using a blank cartridge with powder gases, is sent flying towards the enemy. There are quite a few videos of the use of such grenade launchers on the Internet. In descriptions of the designs themselves, both from their “inventors” and from experience in their use, a range of 100 to 200 meters is most often indicated.
A fighter of the banned and already destroyed 10 times ISIS with a machine gun with a homemade grenade launcher. Photo from the period of maximum power of the organization in Syria and Iraq. Then the militants even wore a kind of uniform, and such grenade launchers were mass-produced and had their own, also mass-produced, ammunition.
What can be said about such devices – is it good or bad?
Well, it's definitely not bad. Anything that allows you to increase the range of destruction of the enemy in some way weapons and pushing the enemy away from us is good. You can’t arm every attack aircraft approaching a landing, an enemy stronghold or a trench with an underbarrel grenade launcher, and not every fighter can throw a grenade further than 20–30 meters, especially when equipped with modern personal armor protection.
Another homemade grenade launcher for hand grenades from Syria.
The times of Remarque and Ernst Junger, when throwing a “mallet” at 50 meters was considered the norm, are long gone, and throwing a grenade is energy-consuming. It’s much easier to invest in a machine gun, pull the trigger and watch the grenade fly towards the enemy.
Naturally, such designs have their limitations and disadvantages, and all of them are well known. However, the gun-mounted mortar also has advantages: compactness, light weight, generally universal ammunition and the ability to fire live ammunition from the same machine gun without dismantling it. Again, you can’t give every attack aircraft a grenade launcher, and it’s unlikely that they exist in such quantities.
Another design of a mortar made from a network.
The current conflict has shown that the native military-industrial complex, in my opinion, is simply not capable of an urgent multiple increase in the production of anything. Many enterprises already work in three shifts, and still barely keep up with the needs of the front.
Still from the video from the other side. Teeroshniks are testing a mortar for AKM at the training ground, late spring 2022.
Firepower, as they say, is never enough.
Is it possible to actually make such samples into serial production and supply them with standard supplies?
Why not. Our respected Western “partners”, in the end, never completely abandoned rifle grenades. The same Israeli military-industrial complex still offers several designs of rifle grenades for export, and for the French FAMAS rifle grenades were developed that could be fired without any adapters or attachments.
Here we are talking about serial specialized samples of rifle grenades, and not about similar improvised designs, but the fact is that the use of rifle grenades and rifle grenade launchers, despite the spread of under-barrel grenade launchers, in many countries, although it has faded into the background, has not been forgotten .
Actually the “Balkan glass” installed on the Zastava M70.
So this initiative is not new, it is necessary, and most importantly, it is in demand on both sides of the front. If until recently only “in the most European country, which we all envy,” it was possible to buy similar designs directly on the Internet, now this can be done here, and directly on popular marketplaces.
Photo from one of the domestic marketplaces. Not the most intelligent option for a mortar, but you can order it with home delivery.
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