New Balkan grenade launcher. The new Balkan grenade launcher is undergoing military tests

Soviet designers became the first in the world to design such a type of weapon as an automatic grenade launcher. The impetus for this was the desire of the military command to increase the combat capabilities of the soldier. Starting from 1934 and until the collapse of the USSR, employees of a special design bureau created several models of easel automatic grenade launchers. Since 2008, Russia has produced a new, more improved weapon known as the AGS-40 Balkan grenade launcher. The description, design and characteristics of this anti-personnel model are presented in the article.

Acquaintance

AGS-40 "Balkan" (GRAU-6G27) is a Russian automatic mounted grenade launcher developed by designers of NPO Pribor. The targets for which this weapon was created were living, unprotected enemy forces and enemy infantry, using field shelters and natural folds of the terrain as protection.

About the history of creation

In 1935, under the leadership of weapons designer Ya. G. Taubin, the first automatic 40.6-mm grenade launcher AGS-17 “Flame” was created (pictured below). The firing range of this gun was 1.2 thousand m.

The gun was equipped with “smart” shells. The ammunition contained a rangefinder, a fuse and a liquidator. The combat crew could not be harmed by fragments of their own projectile, since it could not explode if it fell less than twenty meters away. For grenades that covered a distance of over a thousand meters, automatic detonation was provided. The grenade launcher had its baptism of fire during the Great Patriotic War. However, its main drawback was revealed during military operations in Afghanistan.

Since the weapon was too heavy (30 kg), Soviet designers decided to replace it with a new automatic grenade launcher. Work on the design of a lightweight version lasted from the 1980s to the mid-90s. The lightweight version is listed in the technical documentation as AGS-30. Its weight was only 16 kg. At the same time, employees of the Tula TsKIB SOO were creating a more powerful 40-mm automatic grenade launcher TKB-0134 “Kozlik”. It was this model that became the basis for the AGS-40 “Balkan”.

What was planned?

The creators of the AGS-40 “Balkan” were tasked with creating a new automatic mounted grenade launcher, the power and maximum range of which would exceed the AGS-17 “Flame” and AGS-30. The high performance of the new gun was made possible by the use of a non-standard cartridge design, which among experts is called “caseless.” The AGS-40 “Balkan” ammunition contains a “flying away” cartridge case, which is integral with the grenade body.

About production

The design of the AGS-40 “Balkan” automatic grenade launcher began in the mid-90s. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union and prolonged economic turmoil prevented the project from being completed quickly. Only in 2008, six units of 40-mm automatic grenade launchers AGS-40 “Balkan” and a batch of ammunition for them were transferred to the Russian Armed Forces for testing. Upon completion of the tests, this weapon was recommended for adoption by the Russian Army. In 2013, the AGS-40 was demonstrated in the United Arab Emirates at the IDEX-2013 arms exhibition. According to eyewitnesses, the Russian grenade launcher made a strong impression on everyone. According to military experts, the AGS-40 turned out to be better than its foreign counterparts. It was planned that 2017 would be the year when the Balkan grenade launcher would enter service with the Russian army.

Description

Many people associate the word “grenade launcher” with RPG-7 and RPG-26. However, unlike these models, the 40-mm automatic grenade launcher AGS-40 “Balkan” (a photo of the gun is presented in the article) is equipped with special supports on which it is mounted. Since the AGS-40 fires primarily in bursts, during testing it was noted that this weapon twitches strongly during the firing process. The gunsmiths managed to correct the situation by equipping the gun with a tripod machine and a special seat for the shooter. Its task is to make the process of operating the grenade launcher as comfortable as possible. Since the fighter presses the weapon to the ground with his weight, its barrel almost does not throw up. Because of this design feature, the AGS-40 was nicknamed the “shooting chair” by soldiers.

About ammunition

The AGS-40 grenade launcher system uses 7P39 grenades as ammunition. They are characterized by the presence of a two-chamber ballistic engine. According to military experts, it was the 7P39 that determined the main characteristics of the mounted grenade launcher. In the manufacture of this grenade, a mortar design is used, according to which the chamber containing the propellant charge and the ammunition body form a single whole. During shooting, they fly out of the barrel together. 7P39 is not equipped with a separate sleeve. The grenade is filled with an explosive whose mass is 90 g. According to experts, the caseless design has a positive effect on the power and combat range of the grenade launcher.

About the device

Unlike previous models, AGS-40 has a simplified design. The body of the grenade launcher is represented by a 40 cm barrel and a tubular receiver. It is used as a place to place the main mechanisms of the grenade launcher. The handles with which the shooter can control the fire are located at the rear of the receiver. The trigger is located right there. Near the breech there is space for an enlarged system casing.

The right side of the grenade launcher is equipped with a swinging lever, which is connected to the main automation of the gun. Using this lever, the AGS-40 is reloaded. The place for placing the bolt group and the return mainspring was the inside of the receiver. The grenade launcher is equipped with a rotating bolt with a movable firing pin attached to it. The presence of a gas chamber and piston, standard for weapons using gas-operated automatics, is not provided for in the Balkan grenade launcher.

How does it work?

Firing from an easel grenade launcher is carried out with the bolt open. The AGS-40 device provides a rigid connection between the bolt frame and the firing pin. The latter is used as a gas piston. The barrel channel is locked by a bolt group, which is acted upon by a spring. Once the group reaches the front position, its movement does not stop. Thus, having moved further under the influence of the spring, it moves the bolt and locks the barrel channel. After this, the grenade primer is broken using the striker. As a result of the combustion of the charge, powder gases accumulate, which put pressure on the firing pin, displacing it and the bolt group back. After this, the cycle repeats again.

About ammunition

Easel grenade launchers are equipped with composite metal belts with a capacity of 20 ammunition. The tape is fed from right to left. For this purpose, the AGS-40 is equipped with a special round box, which is mounted to the gun on the right side. These boxes contain two already equipped tapes.

What military equipment will the AGS be used on?

During military operations in Afghanistan, Soviet soldiers welded the AGS-17 “Flame” to the body of a combat vehicle, thereby increasing the combat effectiveness of the weapon. For the AGS-40, Russian designers, taking into account the large weight and high firepower of the gun, provided the ability to install it on any military equipment. The option of mounting an easel grenade launcher on a boat and an attack helicopter has not been ruled out.

About additional accessories

AGS-40 is equipped with a standard tripod machine. In addition, to adjust the firing from a grenade launcher, an optical sight can be installed on the Balkan.

About performance characteristics

AGS-40 "Balkan" has the following performance characteristics:

• The weapon is a type of automatic mounted grenade launcher.
• Country of origin: Russia.
• Barrel length: 40 cm.
• Caliber AGS-40 "Balkan": 40 mm.
• Within one minute, 400 shots can be fired from a grenade launcher.
• The fired projectile develops an initial speed of up to 225 m/s.
• Combat effectiveness is no more than 2500 m.
• The weight of the gun, equipped with a sight and mounting, is 32 kg.
• Weight of a box with 20 ammunition: 14 kg.
• The combat crew consists of two people.
• The AGS-40 “Balkan” was adopted for service in 2017.

Expert opinion

The presence of a special stool in the AGS-40 design is due to the excessive weight of the grenade launcher. According to military experts, the seat not only made the operation of the gun more convenient, but also prevented the barrel from being thrown up after each shot. As expected, the advantages of AGS-40 were confirmed during testing. By increasing the caliber, the designers managed to increase the initial speed from 185 to 225 m/s.

The combat effectiveness indicator also increased from 1100 to 2500 m. The increase in caliber made it possible to equip the ammunition with a large amount of explosive. When using the AGS-17, the crew must have two people, which was especially convenient when transporting the grenade launcher. In addition, due to the imperfect design of the gun, the ammunition belt often got stuck in it. Therefore, the tasks of the combat personnel were clearly distributed: one person shoots, and the second holds the tape.

The improved design of the AGS-40 and the use of an ammunition box in it makes it possible to reduce the crew to one person. "Balkan", due to the increased combat range and increased ammunition power, is an effective weapon with which they plan to equip military equipment.

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 - effective firing 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. The 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 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 firing 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 the tape and, along the way, worked out all the points from where the spirits worked on us. That’s how they escaped 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; 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 virtually 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 handicraft, created by the hands of ordinary soldiers, a sniper version of a grenade launcher for 30 mm ammunition. 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 has been set, and it 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 with which 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 whole 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, removed the tripod and used it as a sniper rifle. I don’t know of any other grenade launcher that can be used in exactly 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.

Firstly, 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 Russian-developed 40-mm grenade launcher.

“Just offhand, the Mk.19 - an American grenade launcher - is almost twice as inferior in characteristics to not only the AGS-40, but also to the old AGS-30, the Germans from Heckler&Koch tried to implement their own version, which was called the HK GMG - there are also a whole range of problems. 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,” he says.

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 carried out on the new grenade launcher and the attention to detail paid by the developers, the new weapon will not disgrace the glory of its predecessors and, most likely, will surpass them in all respects.

Dmitry Yurov

Automatic grenade launcher "Balkan".

Automatic grenade launcher "Balkan" with an attached box with tape.

40mm 7P39 grenades in a belt of factory equipment for the Balkan automatic grenade launcher.

40mm caseless grenade 7P39 - cross-sectional view and view of the bottom part (in the center there is a capsule and four windows for the exit of powder gases, closed with sealed membranes).

Caliber: 40mm
Type: automatic grenade launcher
Length: no data
Weight: 32 kg grenade launcher on the machine + 14 kg box with 20 grenades in a belt
Effective firing range: up to 2500 m
Rate of fire: 400 rounds per minute

The automatic easel grenade launcher "Balkan" (GRAU index 6G27) traces its lineage to the experimental 40mm grenade launcher TKB-0134 "Kozlik", developed at the Tula TsKIB SOO in the eighties of the last century. When developing the TKB-0134 grenade launcher, the goal was to significantly increase the firing range and efficiency compared to the standard AGS-17 30mm automatic grenade launcher at that time. To achieve this task, the developers increased the caliber of the weapon to 40mm, also using a non-standard design for this class of weapon of a caseless ammunition with a “flying away” cartridge case (the propellant charge chamber is an integral part of the grenade body and flies out of the barrel along with it). A similar solution was used in the 40mm VOG-25 rounds for the GP-25 underbarrel grenade launchers, however, the grenades for the TKB-0134 had approximately twice the mass and a significantly longer firing range. In the nineties, on the basis of TKB-0134, the development of the 40mm Balkan grenade launcher was carried out, but due to the difficult economic situation in the country, the development was greatly delayed. Currently, the development of the Balkan grenade launcher system, which includes the 6G27 easel automatic grenade launcher and 40mm 7P39 caseless rounds for it, is in charge of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise State Scientific and Production Enterprise "Pribor" - the main developer of ammunition for automatic grenade launchers and small-caliber automatic guns in Russia. In 2008, Pribor supplied 6 Balkan grenade launchers and the required amount of ammunition to the Russian Armed Forces for testing, so it is possible that in the next few years these grenade launchers will enter service with the Russian Army. At the same time, for the 40mm Balkan grenade launchers, a significant increase in firing range (up to 2500 meters) and target destruction efficiency (up to 2 times) is claimed compared to 30mm AGS-17 and AGS-30 caliber grenade launchers.

The Balkan automatic mounted grenade launcher uses gas-operated automatics, in which the role of a gas piston is performed by a firing pin rigidly connected to the bolt frame. This solution became possible (and necessary) due to the absence of a separate sleeve for 7P39 grenades, which ensures the obturation of powder gases in the barrel chamber. Firing is carried out from an open bolt, and when the bolt group comes to the front position, the bolt frame with the firing pin continues to move forward under the action of the return spring, turning the bolt to lock it, and then the firing pin strikes the primer in the bottom of the grenade. At the moment of firing, the powder gases escaping from the bottom of the grenade put pressure on the end part of the firing pin, pushing it (and the bolt frame associated with it) back. After the grenade has left the barrel and the pressure in it has dropped, the bolt frame rolls back enough to turn the bolt and unlock it, after which the entire bolt group rolls back by inertia. The grenade launcher is fed with ammunition from loose metal belts fed from right to left. Grenades are shipped from the factory loaded into belts with a capacity of 20 shots, 2 belts per transport container. For firing, the tape is placed in a round container adjacent to the right side of the grenade launcher body. The grenade launcher is mounted on a tripod, which is a modified AGS-17 grenade launcher with a seat for the shooter mounted on the rear supports. The Balkan grenade launcher is equipped with an optical sight as standard.

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 with one single purpose - effective firing at shelters and concentrations of enemy manpower. Such grenade launchers are called “pocket” in the army for their unique firing characteristics artillery." 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 “scattering” 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 grenade launcher -17, which is what the weapon was called during the war in Afghanistan. The 30mm automatic grenade launcher from the Afghan War is not just an effective means of firing 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 an AGS to armor or cars is a common thing. We did this every day,” Soviet special forces veteran and retired officer Oleg Zvonarev told Zvezda in an interview. “We had to do something else. 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 the tape and, along the way, worked out all the points from where the spirits worked on us. That’s how they escaped 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 is possible it was possible to imagine: 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; 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 virtually alone. The weight reduction significantly increased maneuverability units on the battlefield and made it possible to build another modification of the grenade launcher in the field. We are talking about a handicraft, created by the hands of ordinary soldiers, a sniper version of a grenade launcher for 30 mm ammunition. 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 it must be solved by any means,” reserve officer of the internal troops Sergei Khan told Zvezda in an interview. “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 with which 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 in the gorge alone and cause rock collapse. We had such an ace, we called him a sniper-grenade thrower. He accomplished 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 a serious rockfall, which blocked a group of militants, effectively cutting off their path to retreat. Russian The retired 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, removed the tripod and used it as a sniper rifle. I don’t know of any other grenade launcher that can be used in exactly 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 “with that side" stopped. 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 large number of questions from foreign experts, where to come from, “Balkan” is nothing more than a fusion of reliable and long-tested technologies with innovations and unique technical solutions. Firstly, “Balkan” surprises with its firing range - 2500 meters instead 1700 for 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, told Zvezda in an interview. A caseless projectile with a two-chamber ballistic engine, according to a military engineer, in the future, it promises a number of advantages: “The service life of the grenade launcher, its general 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 a 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 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 a major design change,” he says. The AGS-40, developed on the basis of the experimental automatic grenade launcher TKB-0134, in the future should completely replace the AGS-17 and AGS-30. New times - new weapons. Judging by the amount of work being carried out on the new grenade launcher and the attention to detail paid by the developers, the new weapon will not disgrace the glory of its predecessors and, most likely, will surpass them in all respects.

Russian The Balkan grenade launcher is undergoing military tests, its adoption is expected this year, said Oleg Chizhevsky, chief designer of NPO Pribor of the Tekhmash holding.

NPO Pribor has developed for a new 40-mm grenade launcher system shot with a 7P39 fragmentation grenade. The 6S19 “Balkan” anti-personnel grenade launcher system is the latest development in the field of domestic grenade launcher weapons.

What are its main advantages over its predecessors? First of all, this is the caliber. Due to its increase (from 30 to 40 mm - approx.) and a new design solution for the shot, it was possible to significantly increase the firing range. If the “Plame” (AGS-17) has a range of up to 2000 m, which is quite good, then the “Balkan” had a range of 2500 m already at the first stage of testing.

It is planned to develop a number of special grenades for it, in which electronics will be introduced. In what form this will be implemented is still a military secret. Now the testing of remote detonation in artillery rounds has been completed and the designers of NPO Pribor are ready to switch to melee weapons.

The range of special ammunition for the new grenade launcher is quite wide, ranging from smoke grenades, to grenades with video surveillance, grenades intended for electronic warfare, and so on.

The grenade launcher is currently undergoing military testing. It should be put into service in 2018. The holding's specialists have already supplied grenade launchers and ammunition to the troops for testing.

40 mm grenade launcher anti-personnel complex 6G27 "Balkan"

Purpose:

Designed to destroy and suppress manpower and defeat fire weapons located outside shelters, in open trenches (trenches) and behind natural folds of the terrain, in hollows, ravines, on reverse slopes of heights, as well as defeat military equipment (vehicles, launchers, radar stations, etc.).

For firing from the 40 mm Balkan grenade launcher system, 40 mm rounds with the 7P39 fragmentation grenade, 40 mm rounds with the 7P39prakt practical grenade and 40 mm rounds with the 7P39U practical grenade for practice shooting are used.

Firing from the 40 mm Balkan anti-personnel grenade launcher system is carried out in short (up to 5 shots), long (up to 10 shots) bursts and continuously.

Shots are supplied during firing from a box with a capacity of 20 shots loaded into a cartridge belt.

Shooting can be carried out both flat and mounted trajectories.

Characteristics:

40 mm shot with a 7P39 fragmentation grenade for the 6G27 “Balkan” grenade launcher system

Purpose:

Designed for firing from automatic grenade launchers.

The 40 mm 7P39 index shot, equipped with a fragmentation grenade, performs the following tasks as part of a grenade launcher system:

• defeat of open manpower and manpower located behind reverse slopes of terrain and in open engineering structures at a distance of up to 2500 meters;
• destruction of military equipment (vehicles, launchers, radar stations, etc.).

Characteristics:

40 mm shot with a practical grenade for target practice (index 7P39U)

Purpose:

Designed for target practice in order to train personnel in the techniques and rules of firing from the 40 mm automatic anti-personnel grenade launcher system "Balkan", and also as a target designator due to the fact that a red smoke cloud is formed on the ground at the site of the grenade explosion.

Characteristics:

40 mm shot with a practical grenade (index 7P39 practical)

Purpose:

Designed for testing to determine various characteristics of ammunition and grenade launchers.

Characteristics:

30 mm shot with high-efficiency fragmentation grenade VOG-30 (index 7P36) for AGS-17, AGS-30 grenade launchers

Purpose:

Designed for shooting at manpower and military equipment. The shots are intended to be used for firing from machine-mounted grenade launchers AGS-17 and AGS-30, as well as their modifications installed at various military equipment sites. The shots are equipped with a fuse that has a self-destruct mechanism.

Characteristics:

30 mm shot with a practical grenade for training shooting from automatic grenade launchers (index 7P36U)

Purpose:

Designed for target practice in order to train personnel in the techniques and rules of firing from automatic grenade launchers, as well as target designation, due to the fact that a contrasting smoke cloud is formed on the ground at the site of the grenade explosion.

Characteristics:

30 mm shot with a practical grenade (index 7P36 practical)

Purpose:

Designed for testing to determine various characteristics of shots and grenade launchers. The shot is made according to the weight and size characteristics of a 30 mm shot with a fragmentation grenade and is equipped with a ballistic sleeve instead of a fuse.