RPG-40 Grenade launcher

The RPG-40 was on display at MSPO 2008. The Centre for Research and Development Equipment Mechanics (OBR SM) and Military Technical Academy, which I assume are Polish organizations, have developed the RPG-40. Despite its name it has nothing to do with the Russian RPG-* arms and does not fire rocket propelled grenades, just the standard 40mm variety.

Files Spec 2008 09 Rt1 Z01Rgp01
The RPG-40

It holds 6 rounds and features an oversized chamber so a variety of lethal and non-lethal ammunition can be chambered – limited by how much pressure the weapon can withstand.

Files Spec 2008 09 Rt1 Z01Rgp03
Oversized 40mm chamber

It may be in direct competition with the South African Milkor MGL (M32) that is currently used by the Marines in Iraq. It looks like it has a very similar spring-loaded magazine, which rotates after a shot has fired. I would not be surprised if the MGL technology has been licensed.

300Px-M-32-Grenade-Launcher

Marine with M32 MGL (MGL-140) in Iraq.
Photo from Wikipedia

1 31 2004 Milkor-Mgl-Mk-1S Si5
MGL MGL Mk-1

The MGL is a scaled up version of the Striker/Streetsweeper/Protecta rotary magazine 12 gauge shotgun:

Striker
Striker shotgun with 12″ barrel. Photo from guns.ru

More info here (translated in google)

I have done my best to find accurate information about this firearm on the Polish MSPO 2008 website. I do not speak or read Polish so I had to rely on Google Translate. If I got something wrong, please correct me in the comments.

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Steve Sep 12th 2008 military, weapons Tags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

3 Responses to “RPG-40 Grenade launcher”

  1. Jcameloon 25 Oct 2008 at 5:04 pm link comment

    If it does not fire a rocket propelled grenade then why is it called an rpg?

  2. Wosiuon 26 Oct 2008 at 1:16 am link comment

    Hmmm :) Google Automatic Translator changed the name of this grenade launcher. It is not RPG-40. It is RGP-40. RGP is from Rewolwerowy Granatnik Polautomatyczny (Revolver Semiautomatic Grenade-launcher). RGP-40 is genuine Polish construction. Weapon in present form is only ugly functional model, I hope final model will be more ergonomic. There are in Poland very big family of lethal and non-lethal 40 x 46 mm rounds named SBAO-40 with almost 20 types of rounds.

  3. Danaon 15 Nov 2009 at 12:07 pm link comment

    VERY LITTLE beats the RPG 7 and I’d rather have one of those and a few rockets. The shaped molten copper core is hard to defend against….They’re EXTREMELY effective. The RPG 40 is nice but it’s no grenade Launcher. Not even close….call it a storng armed grenade throing machine or something like that. J/K…I dunno WHAT to call it but it wouldn’t be RPG anything.
    IMO of course. :)

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