Weapons experts, what does this look like to you

[rabs]

Friday midnight in Tegucigalpa, Hondurans, there was a very loud explosion downtown near a school where elections ballots are stored. Friday midday police were saying it had been an RPG of "Soviet" manufacture and trotted out this thing for the press. The dictator of Honduras said only Nicaragua has such weapons.

My question is, if this thing was fired, why is it in such good condition?

[Deep13]

1. It looks like a paint mixer. nt

[rabs]

2. LOL ... you are so right

The Honduran dictatorship is desperate to provoke fear and panic among the population before the Nov. 29 fraudulent elections the golpistas are fomenting. Thanks for the chuckle.

[Quasimodem]

3. It only had to be used once.

One would hope that the launcher portion of a rocket-propelled grenade would come through the launch without too much damage, or else generating repeat business for the weapons’ dealer would be problematic.

Or are they suggesting that they were attacked by a role-playing game?

[TheWraith]

4. It looks like the refugee from the hardware store.

What it does NOT look like is an RPG-7 launcher assembly, which is what they wanted it to look like.

[krispos42]

5. Looks like part of a sprinkler

Careful or that guy will water you sumptin' fierce!


:-)


Can't be a rocket... venting the exhause out of the sides of the tube is not going to do anything to impart velocity.

:shrug:

[leveymg]

6. Here's what an RPG7 launcher assembly looks like>

Not even a remote resemblance, unless that thing is homemade from parts found at the Tegucigalpa Depoto de Casa

[provis99]

7. it's a penis substitute.

any more questions?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

27. Why are you so infatuated with penises?

[aikoaiko]

28. If you think that is a penis substitute, you're doing "it" wrong.

good luck. ;)

[JoeyT]

8. It looks like someone glued the bottom half of a crutch onto an antique spyglass tube.

"My question is, if this thing was fired, why is it in such good condition?" That's not the rocket, it's supposed to be the launcher...Most RPG launchers were reusable.

It certainly doesn't look like any manner of RPG launcher, though.

For reference, a list of the Soviet (and other) RPGs and other grenade launchers can be found at http://world.guns.ru/grenade/gl01-e.htm

Edited to add: Spyglass to find land with a detatchable peg leg for walking on it. It's the latest in pirate gadgetry.

[Howzit]

9. Looks like part of a mortar

The holes are to set off the propelling charge seen here surrounding the mortar "stem"


Either the rest of it blew up, or this one didn't go off - don't assume only one was fired.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Similar.

If it was a mortar, it was a cheap-assed khyber pass edition, apparently.

I still think it looks like a caulk gun attached to the end of a paint mixer.

[rabs]

11. Another photo

Whatever it was that exploded in Tegucigalpa last night made a hell of a loud blast. There were no injuries as it went off at midnight. Honduran cops said it was Russian manufactured. Certainly does not look like the RPG launchers shown from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

[Uben]

14. Oh hell, I know what that is.......

...it's Batman's hook he fires when he needs to grab hold of a building or something! I think the guy holding it is Heath Ledger, except he is wearing his Hispanic mask.

[diveguy]

12. Its an rpg

That is an RPG grenade. His right hand is oon the part that you normally see. The two grey tubes slide in to the tan tube to make it more compact. After firing it extends and the stabilizer fins fold out. He is unfolding one of the fins with his left hand.

[Man_in_the_Moon]

13. It is...

...the back half of a rocket propelled grenade.

The explosive part would be where his right hand is, and where his left hand is are the stabilizing fins which are deployed after firing.

As to its condition, stranger things have happened.

[Euromutt]

15. That's the rear end of an RPG-7 projectile

Essentially, it's the part with the rocket motor, which is inserted into the launcher tube.

This is a cutout picture of a PG-7VM, which is the High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) round for the RPG-7:



If you look at the tail end (on the right), you'll get the idea of what I mean. See also this Wikipedia picture:



The bits sticking out by the Honduran cop's left hand are stabilizer fins, which are folded forward until the projectile is launched, and then unfold due to air resistance while in flight.

As for why it's in such good condition, that's probably because it is a HEAT round, and therefore uses a shaped-charge warhead. In the cutout picture above, the explosive charge is the pink bit (yellow in the second photo). The charge detonation occurs from the rear, traveling forward, and the shape of the charge channels the blast forward, focusing it on the target. Consequently, little of the explosion travels backwards, and thus doesn't affect the projectile's tail.

I'm uncertain whether you can tell it's actually Soviet-made (as opposed to post-1991 Russian) from the tail of the projectile. I'm also highly skeptical of the notion that the Nicaraguan government is the only entity in Central America that has RPG-7s lying around. The CIA probably supplied Chinese-made copies (Type 69) to the Contras in the 1980s (and they operated out of Honduras), the Sandinistas might have had some stolen or misplaced, FARC probably managed to acquire some, and it's been made in many countries that there are probably plenty knocking around various clandestine arms markets.

[GreenStormCloud]

16. Actually, much of the blast goes backwards as well.

Equal and opposite reaction. All shaped charges have a backblast. Inside the pink/yellow is a cone - like a drinking cup. The cone is hollow. The force of the explosion squeezes the cone into a molten jet that is rod shaped and propels it forward. The rod of molten metal blast/melts its way through armor. For it to work, it has to explode a precise distance from the armor, and that is why you have so much of the assembly forward of the charge - to provide the standoff distance.

The warhead on the bottom appears to be a general purpose one.

Otherwise your post was excellent. RPG-7 rockets can be found almost anywhere in the world.

It is rather surprising to see the tail assembly in such good condition after detonation.

[Euromutt]

18. I have no idea what the tail assembly is supposed to look like after detonation

It's help if any of the photo showed the warhead end of the assembly. And while the rocket exhuast does look like the unit's been fired, I acknowledge that you'd expect the thing to look more dirty, at least. Moreover, the Honduran cop's evidence-gathering skills (or more precisely, lack thereof) are making me wince.

If you wanted to cook up a conspiracy theory, you might readily suggest that the explosion was simply a placed explosive charge, and that an old tail assembly was planted at the scene to support a false claim that an RPG-7 was used. Just an idea.

[one-eyed fat man]

23. that is definitely the aft end

or motor end of an RPG.

I have seen some pieces of fin sections in the impact area on training ranges but none that looked that good after detonation, although that's not to say it's impossible.

The list of countries not using the RPG is the short one. They were passed out like popcorn by the former Warsaw pact and favorites of the IRA, ETA, Bader-Meinhof, the Red Brigades, Hamas, Somali pirates, and if you believe Eric Holder, there are pallets of them in every Wal-Mart between Brownsville and El Paso waiting for Mexican drug lords to buy them.

[Katya Mullethov]

17. Something you would buy at a So. Tx. gunshow

Russian/ChiCom RPG stabilizer fins and tail section , he always sets up between the beanie baby lady and the toilet mint flavored jerky guy.
I really need to go out and pick up my empties too before one of the horses manages to stomp on one .

[PavePusher]

20. You beat me to it...!

P.S. Did he say when he was coming through Arizona again...?

[Katya Mullethov]

22. The beanie baby guy or the RPG/M203 guy ?

And is that Pave ...... like PAVE LOW ?

[PavePusher]

24. The RPG guy.

I've been wanting a few of those for years, I guess I keep missing his booth/table ('sarcasm' for the thick-as-bricks folks...)

And yes, that does refer to PAVE LOW. The greasy grey hover-bus for all you aerial battle-taxi needs.

[Katya Mullethov]

25. Grand !

Dont leave em stranded up there ! Your thick as brick comment has put me in a mind to make a Technology Branch post .

[PavePusher]

26. Unfortunately, I don't work on them anymore.

The AF has seen fit to put me back into C-130 mx, not quite as exciting stuff in my book. And they retired almost all the H-53's. I can drive by 'em every day here in the Bone Yard. Brings a tear to the eye.

Fixing hell-em-choppers is much more interesting. And you generally go to stranger places, with stranger people, doing stranger things.

[dairydog91]

19. My guess: It's an OG-7 projectile for an RPG-7 launcher.

The OG-7 is an anti-personnel grenade that is fired from the RPG-7 launcher. Its effects resemble an enormous hand grenade. The section with perforations is the tail end, and the yellow end is the warhead. I think it's an OG-7 because that's got a particularly narrow warhead, while most RPG rockets have a more bulbous warhead. The OG-7 has a warhead shaped like a narrow cylinder.



An OG-7 projectile


Another OG-7 (note the fins at the back of the rocket


Edit: Needless to say, whatever this is, it didn't explode.

Edit2: Edited for pics. The colors are off in these pics, they might be dummy rounds. It's hard to find pics of OG-7s, they're kind of a novelty item.

[Francis Marion]

21. Looks like an RPG rocket

There are numerous munitions for this 60 year-old weapons system, many generations of design.
Looks a lot like a spent rocket, you can see the in-flight deployable fins behind the warhead.
The antitank munition is armed in flight at some number of meters past the firer, so it's possible to fire off a shell and not have it activate because the target was too close. Also the impact sensitive tip may or may not strike an object capable of triggering the detonator. The antitank munition also is designed to explode automatically in flight if it has not struck a target.

Afghans have used the RPG as an improvised anti helicopter weapon against the Russians and now us, and these were also deployed by Somali and Al Qaeda advisors in Mogadishu to bring down Blackhawks.

Nicragua would have its share of Soviet era weapons left over from the time of the Sandinista revolution and takeover.

The RPG launcher is reusable, and it's possible that of more than one rocket was fired, even if there was only one loud explosion reported, also may have been lost or dropped, never fired. Also a ready-to-fire rocket needs a propellant charge, which the photo does not appear to show.