The RPG-6 (Russian ''Ruchnaya Protivotankovaya Granata'', "Handheld Anti-Tank Grenade") was a

Soviet-era The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...

anti-tank hand grenade used during the late

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and early Cold War period. It was superseded by the

RKG-3 anti-tank grenade RKG-3 is a series of Soviet anti-tank hand grenades. It superseded the RPG-43, RPG-40 and RPG-6 series of grenades. It entered service in 1950, and was still being used by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan into the 2000s and 2010s, against the v ...

History

The RPG-6 was designed as a replacement for the

RPG-43 The RPG-43 (ruchnaya protivotankovaya granata obraztca 1943 goda, meaning hand-held anti-tank grenade) was a high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) shaped charge hand grenade used by the Soviet Union during World War II. It entered service in 1943, repl ...

after the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history ...

. It underwent testing in September 1943, and was accepted into service in October 1943. First RPG-6 grenades were used against Axis troops in last week of October 1943.Оружие Победы / колл. авт., отв. ред. В. Н. Новиков. 2-е изд., пер. и доп. М., "Машиностроение", 1987. стр.427 The weapon was a success and went into mass production in late 1943. During the war, RPG-6 grenades being used alongside the RPG-43. In the USSR, some grenades were kept in storage even after the end of the World War II.

Design

It operated on the

shaped charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, ini ...

''Munroe effect'' principle, in which a metal-lined cone-shaped explosive charge would generate a focused jet of hot metal that could penetrate armor-plate. It was a conical casing enclosing a shaped charge and containing 562 grams of trinitrotoluene (

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

), fitted with a percussion fuse and four cloth ribbons to provide stability in flight after throwing. It could penetrate approximately 100 millimeters of armour. The RPG-6 had a fragmentation radius of 20 metres from the point of detonation, and proved useful against infantry and tanks. The RPG-43 had a large warhead, but was designed to detonate in contact with a tank's armour; it was later found that optimal performance was gained from a

high-explosive anti-tank High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) is the effect of a shaped charge explosive that uses the Munroe effect to penetrate heavy armor. The warhead functions by having an explosive charge collapse a metal liner inside the warhead into a high-velocity ...

(HEAT) warhead if it exploded a short distance from the armour, roughly the same distance as the weapon's diameter. In the RPG-6 this was achieved by adding a hollow pointed nose section with an impact fuse in it, so that when the weapon detonated the warhead was at an optimum distance from the armour.

References

Hand grenades of the Soviet Union Anti-tank grenades World War II infantry weapons of the Soviet Union Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1943 {{Grenade-stub