Automatic grenade launcher from AGS-17 to AGS-40 Balkan27.08.2015 10:22 | Author: Optimus Prime Automatic grenade launchers as a means of anti-personnel warfare are quite effective. In capable hands o

The domestic grenade launcher system AGS-40 "Balkan" (or 6G27 according to the GRAU Index) has been produced in Russia since 2008. It is designed as a descendant weapon based on a domestic development - the Kozlik automatic mounted grenade launcher. This type of weapon was created to annihilate enemy forces, infantry concentrations and damage telecommunication lines. This will be discussed in this article.

Comparison with analogues

Footnotes

1. Weight with machine and sight without cartridge box (tape)
2. The AN/PWG-1 sighting system includes a daytime television channel with 3x magnification and image output on a built-in display, a laser rangefinder and a ballistic computer. The sight also has an interface for connecting to it a night sight operating in the IR range, with the image of the night channel displayed on the display.

AGS-40 "Balkan": a destructive beast in a new guise

Born to open fire

Automatic grenade launchers as a means of anti-personnel warfare are quite effective. In skillful hands, they are able to repel a serious enemy offensive and reach important strongholds. In the history of domestic weapons since 1968, samples of automatic grenade launchers for special ammunition - a grenade - begin to appear every now and then, which are developed for one single purpose - to effectively fire at shelters and concentrations of enemy manpower.

Due to their unique firing characteristics, such grenade launchers are called “pocket artillery” by the troops. AGS-17 “Flame” is the first, and perhaps one of the most successful and simple automatic grenade launchers in the world. A 30-mm automatic system designed to defeat enemy forces is a good solution for effectively “dispersing” and destroying the enemy almost everywhere: in open space, in shelters, in trenches and behind natural folds of the terrain.

“Door artillery” is the second nickname of the AGS-17 grenade launcher, which the weapon was given during the war in Afghanistan. The 30mm automatic grenade launcher from the Afghan war is not just an effective means of fire that can be operated by two people. This grenade launcher also had one more quality characteristic of all domestic weapons - versatility.

There are a lot of cases when the AGS-17 was attached to, to put it mildly, surfaces that are not typical for a grenade launcher. “Attaching AGS to armor or vehicles is common. We did this every day,” Soviet special forces veteran and retired officer Oleg Zvonarev told Zvezda in an interview.

“We had to do another thing. In Vietnam, the Americans widely used the so-called door gunner - a man with a machine gun who suppressed fire from the ground. But there the opposition was not always targeted, and so, for the sake of noise. We did it simpler - we attached the AGS to a special carriage near the doorway, equipped a tape, and along the way we practiced all the points from where the spirits were working on us. This is how they escaped from the fire from the ground,” he explained

Sniper thirty

“Be better than its predecessor” - this is the motto of any weapon that needs to be adapted to the realities of modern warfare. And although the AGS-17 itself and the ammunition that was used in it were very reliable, the developers decided to find the limit of technological excellence and reliability with the help of a modernized version of the automatic grenade launcher - AGS-30.

From its predecessor, the “thirty” inherited all the best that could be imagined: rate of fire, reliability, effective ammunition - VOG-17, VOG-17M, VOG-30 and an effective radius of continuous destruction of the enemy of seven meters. However, modernization implies improvement, and in the case of the AGS-30, the developers managed to achieve the maximum possible weight reduction - instead of 30 kg for the AGS-17, the new grenade launcher weighed almost half as much - 16 kg, which made it possible to operate powerful weapons, in fact, alone.

The reduction in mass significantly increased the maneuverability of units on the battlefield and made it possible to build another modification of the grenade launcher in the field. We are talking about a homemade version of a sniper grenade launcher for 30 mm ammunition, created by the hands of ordinary soldiers. One of these modifications during the campaign in the North Caucasus helped Russian motorized riflemen block and destroy a bandit group.

“Yes, everything is as usual. The task was set and must be solved by any means,” reserve officer of the internal troops Sergei Khan said in an interview with Zvezda. “To simplify it as much as possible, it was necessary to block the militants in a gorge, one side of which was covered by a mountain, and the other side was free,” he emphasized.

Reflecting on the choice of weapons that were to solve the problem, the Russian military came to the conclusion that the use of RPG-7 hand grenade launchers would not leave any survivors among the militants.

“Well, we thought about it, had a quick consultation and decided that it would be easier to cover the entrance to the gorge with single ones and cause a rock collapse. We had such an ace, we called him a sniper-grenade thrower. He completed the entire task,” Khan said. According to him, three shots from a 30-mm AGS-30 grenade launcher were enough to cause a collapse and serious rockfall, which blocked a group of militants, effectively cutting off their path to retreat.

The retired Russian officer also added that it was impossible to come up with something more suitable for solving the problem than an automatic grenade launcher in combat conditions: “You see, this was reconnaissance after all, and we actually ended up with a grenade launcher by accident. We made it as light as possible, deprived it of a “tripod” and used it as a sniper rifle. I don’t know of another grenade launcher that can be used in the same way in combat conditions as you please.” During the campaign in the North Caucasus, the AGS-30 was used in a good hundred combat missions, and every time the “thirty” opened fire, resistance “from the other side” ceased.

Well designed new

After all the testing and combat work, it was decided not to abandon the idea of ​​automatic grenade launchers, but to develop work in a promising direction. The combat use of the AGS-17 and AGS-30 in a wide variety of weather and combat conditions showed that a more effective means of instantly destroying a target, with the exception of anti-tank grenade launchers, has not been invented. This time they did not modernize the old one and developed a unique grenade launcher with a number of innovations that are not found in any automatic grenade launcher.

The AGS-40 “Balkan” grenade launcher presented at the IDEX-2013 exhibition in the United Arab Emirates caused genuine delight among those initiated in the intricacies of weapons production. With wide open eyes and a lot of questions from foreign experts, there was no question where to come from, because “Balkan” is nothing more than a fusion of reliable and long-tested technologies with innovations and unique technical solutions.

First of all, the Balkan surprises with its firing range - 2500 meters instead of 1700 for the AGS-17. Secondly, the 40-mm grenades for the new grenade launcher are designed according to the so-called mortar principle.

“The technology is great, of course. Efficiency increases significantly. Such ammunition makes it possible to almost double the amount of explosive in a grenade and, as a result, increase its effectiveness,” Nikolai Kukushkin, an officer and engineer for the operation of small arms, said in an interview with Zvezda.

A caseless projectile with a two-chamber ballistic engine, according to a military engineer, promises a number of advantages in the future: “The service life of the grenade launcher, its overall convenience, the amount of ammunition in the ammunition load... You can also cite five or six positive aspects.”

According to the expert, almost all foreign automatic grenade launchers are inferior in terms of their overall qualities to the new 40-mm Russian-developed grenade launcher: “Right off the top of my head, the Mk.19, an American grenade launcher, has almost twice the performance characteristics of not only the AGS-40, but also the old one.” AGS-30, the Germans from Heckler&Koch tried to implement their own version, which was called HK GMG - there are also a number of problems there. From effective firing range to ammunition. One of the most interesting designs was built by the Americans - their Striker 40 would have been good if not for reliability problems. After a series of shots, the grenade launcher simply stopped working. As far as I know, they are still trying to eliminate the reason without major design changes.”

AGS-40, developed on the basis of the experimental automatic grenade launcher TKB-0134, in the future, should completely replace AGS-17 and AGS-30.
New times - new weapons. Judging by the amount of work being done on the new grenade launcher and the attention to detail the developers pay, the new weapon will not disgrace the glory of its predecessors and will most likely surpass them in all respects. Dear readers! Subscribe to us on Twitter, Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki or Facebook.

Technical details

The UAG-40 mechanism is based on an automatic blowback mechanism. The primer is pierced and the shot is fired during the shutter roll. The grenades are fed by belt (American metal belt M16).

The grenades are high-velocity, all available types of NATO standard grenades are used. UAG-40 has a recoil impulse reduction system. These are a friction damper of the bolt, a muzzle brake and a three-stage barrel rifling.

The muzzle brake is designed in such a way that, using gas from the combustion products of gunpowder, it reduces the recoil impulse, reduces the upward impulse of the barrel, and reduces the cutting of soil particles at the place where the tripod is installed.

The grenade launcher is controlled by two handles located in the rear part of the body, or by one handle and a shoulder rest. For operator convenience, the handles can take a horizontal or vertical position. The right handle is equipped with a release key. The release key has two modes: for single shots and for serial shots. The release button and shutter are equipped with locks that prevent unauthorized shooting under any conditions (including falls, shaking, vibration, impacts from any direction). For convenience and reliability, both clamps are controlled by one lever.

Features of the UAG-40 grenade launcher:

The design development used: a friction damper of the shutter, which consists of cantilever springs that interact with the shutter and are located on the inner surface of the body;

Three-stage longitudinal screw threading of the barrel, consisting of two parts;

Rotary trigger control knobs;

A prefabricated mechanical sight, which is located in the AG carrying handle.

The integrated use of these design solutions made it possible to achieve the main advantages: high accuracy (accuracy) when firing in bursts, reduced recoil impulse, high reliability and ease of production and operation.