RKG-3 AT.

This is coolbert:

Old wine in a new bottle but still tasty?

WW2 style Soviet shaped-charge anti-tank hand-thrown grenade still in use the Ukraine Conflict.

Who would have ever thought it? Mr. Ripley needs to be informed.

RKG-3 useful if dropped or thrown and landing on those most vulnerable top portions of a tank. A strike on the engine compartment might not destroy the armored vehicle but would render immobile.

See this You Tube video the RKG-3 still in use and as dropped from a drone. The tip thanks to "Blazing Cat Fur".

That article from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

"How Ukraine Uses Obsolete Soviet Grenades To Destroy Russian Tanks From Above"

By RFE/RL May 05, 2022.

"Ukrainian fighters have found a new use for outdated grenades that is proving spectacularly effective at destroying Russian tanks and other armored vehicles."

"This photo released by Aerorozvidka, an organization that develops Ukraine's use of small drones in warfare, shows a Ukrainian-made octocopter drone with two bomblets mounted beneath it."

"Videos recently released by Aerorozvidka show what appears to be the same, tail-finned explosives being dropped by drone before destroying armored vehicles with catastrophic explosions."

"Weapons trackers following the conflict in Ukraine have identified the bomblets as modified Soviet-era RKG-3 anti-tank grenades with 3D-printed tail fins attached to stabilize their fall from drones."

"The RKG-3 (pictured) is an anti-tank grenade designed in the Soviet Union that was first introduced in 1950. The weapon is the size and weight of a slender bottle of wine and made to be thrown by hand at enemy armored vehicles."

[....]

"Although remarkably effective on impact, the RKG-3 required near-suicidal proximity to enemy vehicles, and when rocket-propelled Soviet anti-tank weapons such as the RPG-7 entered service . . The risky, hand-thrown RKG-3 became largely obsolete."

It IS reputed that various insurgent and terrorists in Iraq and Syria have also used the RKG-3 with some success. I guess would also be effective if hitting a soft-skinned vehicle in a vulnerable area, say the engine compartment.

See also American M72 improved light-anti-tank weapon firing downward from a drone commercially available.

coolbert.