#VOG-17

In an interview given to INTERFAX news agency, Vladimir Lepin, the CEO of Russian “Techmash” Concern, told about the current status of the 40mm AGS-40 “Balkan” automatic grenade launcher. Acording to Lepin, the AGS-40 is being extensively tested in their army since 2017. Right now they are making the final design changes, particularly to improve the night vision scope, disintegrating belt, loading machine and other minor elements of the system. They are planning to finish the testing and adopt the AGS-40 “Balkan” by the end of 2018.

According to news website Tut.by, a Belarusian company called BSVT has developed a new handheld grenade launcher. It is based on Russian Baryshev experimental grenade launcher and features some improvements over the latter. Particularly, the use of polymer and titanium parts allowed the designers to decrease the overall weight by 20%, down to 8 kilograms (about 17.5 lbs). The launcher will probably be adopted by the Belarusian special forces units.