Новая статья о продолжении компанией Airtronic USA клонирования и "улучшения" РПГ-7.
Компания утверждает, что продала уже 100 единиц клонов по линии FMS и сейчас ведет переговоры о поставке 3 тысяч единиц армии СЩА и 10 тысяч штук - некоему "иностранному заказчику" (Ираку?).
Также есть мнение, что партия в 3000 штук пойдет для КМП и всяческих спецназеров.
Airtronic USA продолжает работы над модификацией, в частности разрабатывает облегченный вариант РПГ с композитной "трубой" вместо стальной, что позволит снизить вес РПГ с 15,2 фунтов до якобы всего 5,5 фунтов. Также разрабатываются собственные гранаты и т.п.
Date Posted: 02-Jun-2009
Jane's Missiles & Rockets
Airtronic to offer lightweight RPG-7 launcher
Scott R Gourley
Just months after unveiling its first fully US manufactured RPG-7 launcher, Airtronic USA has revealed continuing development efforts for a new lightweight composite launcher.
The company's earlier design is already attracting orders.
According to Airtronic USA President Robert Walter, development of its original RPG-7 launcher started in a somewhat circuitous manner. "We had entered a competition to 'reverse engineer' another shoulder-fired weapon...and my business partner was pulled into a meeting at the US National Small Arms Technology Consortium [NSATC]. We were told, 'We saw your proposal but what we are really interested in are RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. That's what we'd like you to concentrate on.' And three months later we had our own version of the RPG.
"So we looked at all the different versions of RPG-7 launchers out there, and examined what was wrong with them," he added. "One thing was that they have a tendency to blow up, because they are castings. Whether Chinese, Bulgarian, or Russian, they don't do the same quality assurance as we do. We also own a barrel company [Badger Defense/Badger Barrels] so our RPG launcher can be made out of barrel steel. That's 4150 barrel steel - ordnance grade.
"Then we asked, 'Why are we stuck with Russian sights and Russian accessories?' So we put Picatinny rails on our launcher as well," he said.
Qualification testing of the new launcher involves the firing of 500 rockets out of three launchers. It is being conducted in Israel by an Israeli company, said Walter. "We can't get the RPG rockets themselves easily in this country," he explained.
Walter acknowledged the sale of the first 100 units of the barrel steel launcher under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme. "We are also looking at two different government opportunities," he added. "Our government wants to buy 3,000 - basically everybody is bidding the current FMS solicitation that's on the street for 3,000. US military pricing will be in the 6,000 - 9,000 dollar range, depending on quantity," he noted.
"And then we have another foreign military customer that wants to buy 10,000 of these and dump all of the Chinese-made RPGs that blow up on them. That's also an FMS sale. So we're looking at 13,000 units over the next 12 months."
Having publicly unveiled its RPG-7 launcher in January of this year, Airtronic USA has also begun work on a second design iteration that replaces the steel barrel with a composite design.
"The current RPG launcher weighs 15.2 lb [6.9 kg]," Walter explained. "The new one is only going to weigh 5.5 lb. We just signed an agreement with ATK, where we will do the metal components, and ATK is going to fabricate using the same technology that they use for the Javelin." The new composite launcher is expected to begin trials by the end of October.
"We're also in the design process of developing our own man-safe ammunition," said Walter. "Our launchers are backwards compatible [with existing RPG-7 rockets] and, additionally, we're going forward with man-safe rockets where you will literally be able to walk up to the warhead with a handgun and start popping rounds into it without it blowing up on you.
"We're going to go with triple redundant fuzing. We're going to get rid of black powder. We're going to make it so that there's no smoke trail back to the user. And we're going to go with a [cold-launch] booster so that you will be able to launch from inside of a building."
Walter predicts that the first example will be available for initial firing tests in approximately one year with rounds ready for production about two years from now.