How powerful are the newly produced Vietnamese anti-tank bullets?

The RPG-7 (B-41) is the standard squad-level anti-tank weapon of the Vietnam People's Army.

In the equipment of the Vietnam People's Army, along with the AK submachine gun, the RPG-7 (B-41) anti-tank rocket launcher is the most "familiar" weapon, leaving many marks on all battlefields from the South to the North.

The standard RPG-7 ammunition that Vietnamese soldiers still use is the PG-7V, a high explosive (HEAT) 85 mm round, weighing 2.2 kg, with an effective range of 300 m, and can penetrate 260 mm of uniform steel.

Vietnam People's Army soldiers trained to use RPG-7 guns, the ammunition in the photo is PG-7V.

Currently, the PG-7V ammunition has proven to be outdated, and its penetration power is not enough to deal with modern armored vehicles and tanks, so it is necessary to equip the B-41 gun with a new, more advanced ammunition.

Based on recently emerged images, Vietnamese soldiers have begun to be issued PG-7VS ammunition produced by domestic defense factories.

Production of anti-tank ammunition at Factory Z131.

The most significant change between the PG-7VS and the PG-7V is that the bullet diameter is reduced to 72 mm, the weight is only 2 kg, but thanks to the more powerful okfole explosive, the steel penetration ability has increased to 400 mm.

In addition, the new bullet also reduces the diagonal angle of the stabilizer from 10 degrees 40 minutes to 8 degrees, the jet nozzle is perpendicular to the axis of the bullet (in the PG-7V bullet, the jet nozzle angle is 3 degrees 40 minutes).

The bullet's rotational speed is reduced from 5,000 - 6,000 rpm to 2,000 - 3,000 rpm, which reduces the dispersion of the penetrating beam due to the slow positioning of the converging focal point.

At the same time, the concave bullet hopper was also replaced from 40X steel to V-95 aluminum alloy.

Vietnamese Army soldier carrying RPG-7 loaded with PG-7VS ammunition.

Compared to the PG-7VL bullet currently used by the Russian Army, this bullet has increased in size to 93 mm, so it can penetrate 500 mm of homogeneous armor. However, the bullet weight also jumped to 2.6 kg, leading to a decrease in maximum velocity and effective range.

It is reasonable that Vietnam chose to prioritize the PG-7VS bullet instead of the PG-7VL because more difficult targets such as tanks with explosive reactive armor will be handled by the PG-7VR or PG-29V double-layer piercing bullet.

According to Baodatviet