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A rocket-propelled grenade (often abbreviated RPG) is a shoulder-fired, anti-tank weapon system that fires rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor and stabilized in flight with fins. Some types of RPG are reloadable, while others are single-use. RPGs, with some exceptions, are generally loaded from the muzzle.〔 RPGs with high explosive anti-tank warheads (HEAT) are very effective against armored vehicles such as armoured personnel carriers (APCs). However, heavily armored vehicles, such as main battle tanks, are generally too well armored to be penetrated by an RPG, unless weaker sections of the armor are exploited. Various warheads are also capable of causing secondary damage to vulnerable systems (especially sights, tracks, rear and roof of turrets) and other soft targets. The term "rocket-propelled grenade" is strictly a backronym; it stems from the Russian language РПГ or ручной противотанковый гранатомёт (transliterated as ''"ruchnoy protivotankovy granatomyot"''), meaning "hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher", the name given to early Russian designs.〔〔〔 RPGs were used extensively during the Vietnam War (by the Vietnam People's Army and Vietcong),〔 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan by the Mujahideen and against South Africans in Angola and Namibia (formerly South West Africa) by SWAPO guerillas during what the South Africans called the South African Border War. In the 2000s, they were still being used widely in conflict areas such as Chechnya, Iraq, and Sri Lanka. Militants have also used RPGs against helicopters: Taliban fighters shot down U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopters in June 2005 and August 2011; and Somali militiamen shot down two U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. == History == The RPG has its roots in the 20th century with the early development of the explosive shaped charge.〔 Before the adoption of the shaped charge, anti-tank guns and tank guns relied primarily on kinetic energy to defeat armor. As tank armor increased in thickness and effectiveness, the guns needed to defeat them became increasingly heavy, cumbersome and expensive, meaning that infantry could find themselves defenseless against tanks. Armies found that they needed to give infantry the means to defeat enemy armor when no anti-tank guns were available. Initial attempts to put such weapons in the hands of the infantry resulted in weapons like the Soviet RPG-40 blast effect hand grenade (here RPG stood for ''ruchnaya protivotankovaya granata'', meaning hand-held anti-tank grenade). The later RPG-43 and RPG-6 used shaped charges, the chemical energy of their explosive being used more efficiently to enable the defeat of thicker armor; however, being hand thrown weapons, they still had to be deployed at suicidally close range to be effective. What was needed was a means of delivering the shaped charge warhead from a distance. Different approaches to this goal would lead to the anti-tank spigot mortar, the recoilless rifle and, from the development of practical rocketry, the rocket propelled grenade. Research occasioned by World War II produced such weapons as the American bazooka and German Panzerfaust, which combined portability with effectiveness against armored vehicles, such as tanks. The Soviet-developed RPG-7 is the most widely distributed, recognizable and used RPG in the world.〔 The basic design of this RPG was developed by the Soviets shortly after World War II in the form of the RPG-2, which is similar in function to the bazooka and the Panzerfaust. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rocket-propelled grenade」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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