Tactics
RPGs are a favorite counter-technology weapons for insurgents.
The basic scheme is to get close, and make the shot count. To counter this, well-equipped armies prefer to maintain some distance and destroy the RPG shooters with artillery, antipersonnel gunfire or bombardment with submunitions, fuel-air bombs or napalm. Less-well-equipped armies use infantry screens to destroy RPG teams. Obviously, laser-guided RPGs would completely change these tactics.
The shooter must shoot and scoot. RPGs are usually visible, and some leave a smoke trail leading back to the shooter. In Afghanistan Mujahideen shooters who shot and stood died from counter-fire.
In Afghanistan, Mujahideen insurgents used RPG-7s to destroy invading Soviet vehicles. To assure a kill, two to four RPG shooters would be assigned to each vehicle. In areas where vehicles are confined to a single path, (road in mountains, swamps, snow, urban areas) RPG teams trapped convoys by destroying the first and last vehicles of the convoy. This was especially effective in cities. Convoys learned to avoid approaches with overhangs, and to use a screen of infantry in hazardous areas.
Multiple shooters were also effective against heavy tanks with reactive armor: The first shot would be against the driver's viewing prisms. After that, shots would be in pairs, one to set-off the reactive armor, and the second to penetrate the tank. The favored parts of the tank were the top and the back of the turret. Chechen rebels attacked Russian tanks from basements. This was effective because the tanks' guns could not depress far enough to allow return fire. Both artillery suppression and infantry screens prevented antitank attacks by RPG teams. Russian tank columns were eventually protected by including antiaircraft artillery that were able to depress and destroy Chechen ambushes.
South African and Soviet APCs would be shot as soon as they stopped to let off troops. The South Africans developed a doctrine of driving the APC in narrowing circles, using automatic gunfire from one side to destroy the RPG teams. This prevented the APCs from becoming stationary targets as they would if they stopped to let off troops.
Helicopters would typically be ambushed as they landed or hovered. Again, multiple shooters were most effective. Both of the Blackhawk helicopters lost by the U.S. in Mogadishu, Somalia, were downed by RPG-7s. In Afghanistan, Soviet helicopters countered by clearing landing zones (LZs) with antipersonnel saturation fire. They also began arriving with unpredictable numbers of wingmen (two or three), to upset Afghan force estimations and preparation. The Afghans countered by digging prepared firing points with overhangs. The Soviets countered by using fuel-air bombs to clear LZs. The Afghans countered by changing to longer-ranged weapons (Stinger missiless) and prevailed.
Afghans sometimes used RPG-7s at extreme long range, exploded by their 4.5 second self-destructs. This performed expedient indirect antipersonnel bombardment, and sometimes was used to discourage reconnaissance by aircraft.
During the U.S invasion of Iraq and the subsequent occupation, the rocket-propelled grenade became a favored weapon of the Iraqi guerillas fighting U.S troops. Since RPG-7 rounds cannot penetrate M-1 Abrams tank armor (although there is believed to be evidence of a tandem warhead RPG penetrating and disabling an M1A1 tank ([1]), it was primarily used to attack soft-skinned Humvees in supply convoys and as an anti-personnel weapon to target patrols.
History
The most widely distributed and used RPG in the world is the RPG-7, developed by the Soviet Union. The Soviets developed the basic design of the RPG during WW II, imitating and combining important design features of the US Bazooka and the German Panzerfaust.
The abbreviation RPG is an interesting example of a cross-cultural designation, since it translates to both English Rocket-Propelled Grenade and Russian as Raketniy Protivotankoviy Granatomet, "a rocket anti-tank grenade launcher". It was also sometimes used by the Vietcongto destroy most notablly American or ARV APCs traversing through the highways of Vietnam.
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