Special grenade launchers and launchers of non-lethal impact
Practical long-term experience of using special non-lethal means in counter-terrorist operations in hot spots, as well as in public order operations conducted recently, has visibly demonstrated that the simultaneous use of several different physical and biological effects by the nature of non-lethal funds ensures the necessary effectiveness of their impact , virtually eliminating the possibility of retaliation by offenders. During the detention of armed criminals and the release of hostages, special forces police and internal troops have to pay special attention not only to ensure the safety of civilians and their employees, but also to minimize the serious consequences for the life and health of offenders, which, in particular, is facilitated by the use of special grenade launchers for example: 33-mm CWG-33; 43-mm GM-94 or 50-mm CWG-50 with annoying, light-sound and shock-shock ammunition. These special-purpose tools are constantly being improved and refined as part of the development program. weapons non-lethal impact.
Work on the creation and adoption of new types of special weapons for use at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia is carried out as part of the Comprehensive plan for the development of non-lethal weapons for the units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The plan provides for a comprehensive solution to the tasks of equipping units of internal affairs agencies and internal troops with non-lethal weapons, which would allow them to effectively perform the functions assigned to them, acting in full compliance with international standards and Russian legislation, as well as using force, taking into account the prevailing circumstances, only in proportion to the existing real danger.
To equip special units of internal troops and law enforcement agencies, various combined non-lethal means have recently been developed, among them multi-purpose hand grenade launchers, container-type launchers and stationary installations, as well as ammunition for them. Currently, intensive work is underway in the interests of various law enforcement agencies to develop new types of weapons and ammunition, which use several basic options for combining various non-lethal factors. At the same time, most of the proposals are the most diverse attempts to implement new approaches to creating more advanced kinetic means of non-lethal action, including providing a combined effect of the kinetic factor simultaneously with other non-lethal factors, since it is assumed that the combined effect of several factors allows you to multiply the total effect. .
Such combined non-lethal means include:
- pneumatically flipped spheres filled with irritants, little dispensers or marking agents, with a range of up to 4 m;
- special grenades for 30 – 50 mm caliber hand grenade launchers, as well as shots providing simultaneous exposure to light, sound, and flying elastic spherical elements, for equipping of which it is possible to use various light and sound (noise) compositions causing temporary loss of human capability (with effective range up to 100 m);
- shots of a distracting action, including - EG-50 M to the special grenade launcher complex RGS-50, providing temporary neutralization of offenders and terrorists through the combined psychological impact of sound, flame of a shot and shock-shock effect of single elastic spherical elements (with an effective firing range to 15 m);
- water cannons (wearable or transportable), with the possibility of adding irritants to the stream of water, which is supposed to provide simultaneous kinetic and irritating effects on offenders.
Along with this, combined means with a deafening-blinding effect were created, the duration of which exposure to an object is determined by the distance from the epicenter of the explosion: the effect of disorientation of offenders using such devices can last from several seconds to several minutes, depending on the characteristics of the charge. The effectiveness of such special means has a considerable time frame, so the maximum blinding time can reach 20 – 30 seconds, and the maximum time of hearing loss can vary from 4 to 6 hours. Such light and sound distraction and psychophysiological effects used for carrying out operations to free hostages, law enforcement operations and to curb riots can be produced in the form of cluster devices, grenades, shots, and stationary installations. Such means of combined light-sound action allowed for use by the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation also include a light-sound shot of the HZS-50 for a special grenade launcher complex RGS-50, the conditions of which require that the distance from the aiming point (triggering) to the nearest person is not less than 1 m
The practice of the use in recent years of special means of combined action by special forces of the police and internal troops to solve specific tasks in practice proved their high effectiveness in ousting criminals from the occupied territory, buildings and other engineering structures. When carrying out a number of counter-terrorist operations, these special means are widely used by internal troops along with military weapons. In these cases, they are used as an aid to create favorable conditions for the further use of firearms.
Currently, in the Russian Federation, in order to counteract mass unrest, research and development activities are being carried out to create a small-sized grenade launcher complex, which allows successively to fire special shock-shock weapons at a range of up to 50 m, and light and sound and tear-irritating ammunition range from 50 to 150 m. This complex should allow the flexibility to vary the tactics of units in countering riots. As for the grenade-launcher shots to various propelling installations, including multi-barreled ones, they should provide the operator with an opportunity to choose the type of the grenade being fired. Also, a small-sized combined complex is being developed for shooting rubber bullets with units of glare and electroshock impact, intended for use by police officers when performing official tasks to curb riots, group and individual unlawful actions, including in places of mass gatherings of citizens and other cases provided for Article 14 th RF Law "On Police". It is assumed that in this complex will be used well-proven ammunition for the domestic barrelless self-defense weapon “Osa”, but with higher accuracy characteristics and significantly increased exposure distance - to 25 m. Such a light and compact complex will allow the police officer to influence offenders in the conditions of group riots in the stadium or transport.
For all newly developed special means, the effective and permissible concentration levels of irritants of various types were determined, the permissible calibers, materials and energy levels for non-penetrating rubber elements were also determined. All this allows the creation of new special means of the combined action to set such tactical and technical characteristics that guarantee maximum efficiency and safety of these non-lethal means.
Grenade launcher complex "Showcase"
One of the very first domestic special grenade launchers of special purpose are the barrel-mounted grenade launcher “Vitrina” and the grenade “Vitrina-G”. The tragic events at the Olympic Games 1972 of the year in Munich, when several Israeli athletes died at the hands of Palestinian terrorists from the Black September group, in the Soviet Union to a large extent stimulated the creation of illegal weapons for the special forces of the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Therefore, during the preparation of the Olympic Games in Moscow 1980, it became necessary to equip the KGB group Alfa with technical means of delivering grenades with irritant elements to a distance of at least 100 m, which would create an aerosol cloud of irritating substances during special operations. The tight deadlines set before the gunsmith's designers determined the choice of the simplest design - according to the type that the Red Army had in the 1930 – 1940-ies of the D-type Dyakonov rifle grenade launcher. It is the simplicity of the proposed design that allowed one of the subdivisions of the Technical Directorate of the KGB of the USSR to create, within three months, a new assault rifle-mortar gun. After state tests of 6 on July 1980 of the year, an 50-mm mortar-assault grenade launcher was adopted by the KGB with the code "Showcase".
50-mm grenade launcher complex "Vitrina", consisting of a grenade launcher mounted on the muzzle of the barrel 5,45-mm Kalashnikov assault rifle AKS-74 U and a grenade tear-irritating action "Vitrina-G"
The grenade launcher was mounted on the thread of the barrel muzzle 5,45-mm Kalashnikov assault rifle AKS-74 U instead of a reinforced flame arrester. As a sighting device for shooting grenades on the grenade launcher coupling was mounted a folding stand of sight with three slots for shooting at 50, 75 and 100 m. , which was shot by a regular 50-mm blank cartridge. The grenade in the barrel was held by a special stopper. The curb weight of the grenade launcher complex was 0,37 kg.
Grenade "Vitrina-G" had a fluoroplastic body equipped with a liquid solution of irritant (chloroacetophenone CN) "Bird cherry", a metal shank and a plastic cylindrical stabilizer. The initial speed of the grenade was - 65 m / s. When meeting with the barrier, an expelling charge was triggered with the instant formation of the cherry cherry aerosol cloud. This tear-irritating substance during evaporation or in an aerosol state affected the sensitive nerve endings of the mucous membranes of the eyes and upper respiratory tract, causing burning and pain in the eyes and chest, tearing, runny nose and cough. To mitigate the impact of recoil on the shooter, when firing from the Vitrina grenade launcher complex, on the butt of the AKS-74 submachine gun, a rubber damper-butt pad was used when firing from the 40-mm grenade launcher GP-25 “Koster”.
The grenade launcher complex “Vitrina” was in service with the special forces of the KGB for a long time and was used by the Alpha group during various operations. However, there were some flaws in this weapon. Thus, a significant caliber of a grenade led to the fact that the recoil momentum from a grenade launcher was great even for a trained shooter, and also claims were made to the lack of effective range of fire, limited only by 100 meters.
Special-purpose multipurpose grenade launcher complex RGS-50 / 50 M
Works to eliminate deficiencies in the Vitrina grenade launcher complex (using only one type of ammunition - Vitrina-G grenade and having a large recoil force), as well as expanding the types of ammunition used led to the creation of a technical command the end of the 1980-s of a new promising special-purpose grenade complex consisting of a special-purpose multi-purpose manual grenade launcher RGS-50 (special special-purpose grenade launcher, 50 mm) and shots to it, from a grenade and tear-irritating GS-50; light and sound SZS-50, as well as shock-shock action - EG-50 (traumatic - with elastic damaging element) and - EG-50 M (with rubber grapeshot). In the future, the complex was supplemented by a whole range of various shots with grenades: fragmentation action - GO-50 and cumulative action - GK-50; grenade for knocking out door locks GW-50; a grenade for the instant production of a smoke screen of the DG-50 (smoke-generating action); a grenade for breaking glasses BK-50 and a grenade for training and firing shots GS-50 PM. The tear-irritating grenade of the HS-50 M was also upgraded.
The mechanical sighting device of the RGS-50 M manual grenade launcher consists of a folding rack sight with three slots for firing at 50, 100 and 150 m and a fly fixed on a high base
The RGS-50 grenade launcher in the series of special equipment of this class belongs to the class of heavy grenade launchers, which are used from distant approaches to the captured object (up to 150 m). It is designed to solve the tasks of anti-terrorist units of power bodies of a wide range of combat missions when conducting various special operations, including for the temporary disabling of living targets or for emergency opening of doors when storming buildings captured by terrorists or disabling vehicles , buses). Neutralization of the enemy with special ammunition provides the fighters with special units the opportunity to come closer to the target of the attack and the effective use of their standard weapons, and the presence in the ammunition of a grenade launcher grenade complex of various destructive actions allows them to successfully solve them. It was the presence of a large selection of ammunition for various purposes that played an important role in the fact that the CGS-50 complex became an authentic multipurpose weapon.
50-mm shots for multipurpose special-purpose grenade launcher RGS-50 M with grenades
CGS-50 is a single-shot rifle-type grenade launcher and has a smooth barrel with a breech and an upper pivotal locking lever; shoulder rest with hydraulic spring-hatch and rubber butt pad; trigger mechanism with a pistol grip fire and handguard. For loading the trunk leans down on the axis, like a hunting rifle, while cocking the internal trigger. One of the design features of the grenade launcher is that when opening the barrel through the platoon driver, the force is transmitted to the trigger mounted inside the case. When this spring is compressed, and the trigger is fixed in the cocked state. When you press the trigger, this force is transmitted to the sear, which, in turn, spinning on the axle, disengages from the trigger. The trigger under the action of the mainspring rotates on its axis, striking the primer of the ammunition - a shot occurs. The trigger after striking, due to the spring rebound, comes back so that the striker could move away from the primer to open the barrel after the shot. At the same time, the grenade launcher rolls back, compressing the hydraulic brake. Removable hydro spring release recoil is a single unit with a tubular shoulder rest located on the axis of the bore and equipped with a rubber nape-shock absorber. This design of the recoil momentum reduction provides throwing grenades weighing about 0,4 kg without pain for the grenade thrower. The trigger mechanism is of a hammer type, with a non-automatic safety lever, its flag is mounted on the left above the trigger. The barrel locking lever is mounted on top. The cartridge case is removed from the chamber by an extractor. To control the weapon is a pistol grip and a removable forearm, mounted under the barrel. The mechanical sighting device consists of a folding rack mount with three slots for shooting at 50, 100 and 150 m and a fly fixed on a high base. The scattering diameter of hits on a vertical target at a distance of 100 m is 150 mm. The low initial speed of the grenade and the design of the barrel provide a low sound level when fired, comparable to the cotton produced by the palms of the hands. The mass of the grenade launcher is 6,8 kg, total length - 890 mm. The simplicity of the design of the grenade launcher ensures high reliability of its work in any operating conditions. The rate of fire from the CGS-50 grenade launcher is 2 – 3 shot per minute.
Rigging device of a hand-held grenade launcher RGS-50 M
At the end of the 1990-x, the CGS-50 grenade launcher was upgraded and received the name "RGS-50 M". For a more comfortable holding under the barrel of an improved model of a grenade launcher, a folding handle was mounted. Hydraulic spring brake recoil replaced the spring and improved trigger mechanism. Currently, the RGS-50 M grenade launcher, together with the RGS-33 grenade launcher, is building up a grenade launcher system for anti-terrorist units of the FSB.
The 50-mm shot (weight 0,39 – 0,42 kg) to the RGS-50 / 50 M grenade launcher is a cylindrical grenade assembled with a flanged plastic sleeve. An 5,45-mm PHS expelling grenade launcher is pressed into the sleeve pan, the charge of which provides the initial speed of the grenade - 90 m / s.
A shot with a light-sounding grenade, GSZ-50, provides a significant psycho-physiological impact on indoor terrorists with the aim of temporarily disrupting body functions. The defeat of offenders is carried out by creating a light-sound effect - a bright flash of light (at least 2 000 000 kJ) and sound pressure on the organs of hearing (at least 135 dB). With the explosion of a grenade there are no mechanical damaging elements.
The shot of the EG-50 with an elastic striking element of shock-shock action with a mass of about 85 grams ensures effective defeat of a single live target. He reliably neutralizes an unprotected person for a short time at distances up to 40 m. At the same time, the offender’s maximum safety is ensured, even if the striking element accidentally hits the head.
The RGS-50 M manual grenade launcher with the dismantled hydro spring-loaded recoil brake making up a single unit with a tubular shoulder rest; with a muzzle device and a shot GS-50 PM
The shot of the EG-50 M with rubber buckshot is also intended for temporary neutralization, but already a group target at a distance to 10 m or an unobserved target in a closed room. The defeat of living targets in it is ensured by the combined psychological impact of sound and the flame of a shot and shock-shock damage by rubber grape-shot. The total mass of 56 elements of the rubber case is about 140 grams, and the diameter of the spreading circle at a distance of 5 m is not less than 1,5 m. Shooting with EG-50 M can be done not only from the CGS-50 grenade launcher, but from the US-50 portable shooting device, which provides shooting with one hand. The mass of the device US-50 is only 1,5 kg, and the dimensions are 406 x84 x64 mm, while the effective firing range is up to 10 m.
A tear-irritating shot of HS-50 M (with a weight of 400 grams) is also intended to temporarily neutralize a group of terrorists or an individual criminal in the room by instantly spraying the tear-irritating gas. The neutralization of offenders by this grenade is achieved by explosively dispersible powder composition of tear action (chloroacetophenone (CN). Highly sensitive contact mechanical fuse ensures guaranteed grenade firing after meeting it with the target and instant creation of intolerable concentration of tear substance. When exploding an ammunition, mechanical damaging elements create an intolerable concentration of tear substance. When explosive ammunition explodes, the mechanical defective elements create an intolerable concentration of tear substance. When an ammunition explodes, the mechanical damaging elements create an intolerable concentration of tear substance.
50-mm multipurpose special-purpose grenade launcher complex RGS-50 M (right view)
A shot of DG-50 with a grenade of smoke-generating action is used to ensure the covert maneuver of special forces by instantly setting a smoke screen.
To break window and window glasses, in order to ensure the penetration of special forces soldiers into the attacked buildings through the window openings, a shot with a GK-50 grenade is used.
The composition of the ammunition grenade launcher RGS-50 M for hitting living targets and equipment also includes fragmentation and cumulative combat grenades. So, to hit living targets at a distance of about 100 m in open areas, as well as in open shelters, in unarmored vehicles or in premises with window openings, a shot with a fragmentation grenade GO-50 is used. The fragmentation zone of a grenade is up to 7 m from the detonation point in the radial direction and to 20 m in the direction of the shot with the angle of spread of 20 °. The grenade can be equipped with a contact-distance or contact fuse.
Partial destruction of units and assemblies of vehicles with their subsequent stopping is carried out by a shot with a cumulative grenade GK-50. A damaging element of a cumulative grenade is capable of piercing an 20-mm aluminum plate, while at a distance more than 7 m in the radial direction there are no striking elements.
50-mm multipurpose special-purpose grenade launcher complex RGS-50 M (left view)
Together with the set of technical means “Cut-off DP-1”, the RGS-50 M grenade launcher can be used for emergency opening of doors by dismantling the door lock. The kit includes shots of the GW-50 with a special drummer and self-braking devices. The “Cut-off DP-1” kit also provides for opening wooden doors: when a muzzle-mounted brake device is fixed to the door with the exception of the possibility of a drummer penetrating an obstacle, when shooting without installing a muzzle device, from a distance of 3 – 10 m with the possibility of a drummer penetrating the barrier.
Shot with a practical grenade HS-50 PM is used for training shooters in the course of training and firing. The mass-dimensional and ballistic characteristics of the training shot correspond to the shot of the HS-50 M. The grenade has inert equipment of the warhead.
For more than twenty-five years of operation, the CGS-50 grenade launcher (CWG-50 M) has proven to be an exceptionally effective weapon against the anti-terrorist units of the state security and special forces units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and internal troops.
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