Comparing MATADOR of the Marine Corps, RPO-A of the Chemical Department

First of all, when talking about the RPO-A Shmel thermobaric grenade launcher, this weapon uses a mixture of gaseous explosive (thermobasic) fuel, a bullet that creates a cluster explosion of thermobaric explosives, and a thermobaric explosive mixture that ignites without the need for a detonator.

The explosive power of the RPO-A is equivalent to that of a 122 mm artillery shell in the field, although it is only designed to be equal to that of a 105 mm artillery shell, with a small concave warhead at the front to destroy obstacles.

The combustion temperature of a thermobaric explosion is up to 800 degrees С. The destructive volume and damage of the bullet in a covered space (house, basement...) is 80 m3 with a compression pressure of up to 4 - 7 kg/cm2.

The destructive and lethal area of ​​the bullet is large (unshielded space - 50 m2 with a compressive pressure of 0.4 - 0.8 kg/cm2 within a radius of 5 m).

Meanwhile, MATADOR (Man-portable Anti-Tank, Anti-DOoR): a disposable recoilless grenade launcher with the function of destroying tanks, armored vehicles, and penetrating the enemy's solid defensive walls.

The special feature of MATADOR is that the same bullet can switch between HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) and HESH (High Explosive Squash Head) modes.

Specifically, HEAT is a hollow blast mode used to penetrate steel when the explosive is wrapped around a funnel-shaped energy accumulator made of heavy and thin material. When detonated, the funnel concentrates energy into a small point for deep penetration.

HESH is a non-converging bullet, but on the contrary, the bullet is made of a thin steel shell containing plastic explosive, the fuse is arranged behind and waits for the explosive to flatten before detonating, so the energy is spread out to break a large hole in the thin wall.

Thus, it can be seen that in terms of power against fortifications and bunkers, RPO-A Shmel and MATADOR are quite equivalent, however, the Israeli grenade launcher has a higher level of versatility, allowing it to destroy a variety of targets.

Due to the nature of the weapon, which uses a mixture of chemical gas, equipping the Chemical Defense Force with RPO-A Shmel is very reasonable.

For the Marines, because of the need to optimize the size of the weapon, carrying a multi-purpose grenade launcher is more convenient than using single-purpose ammunition.

In short, each type of grenade launcher above has its own characteristics suitable for the force assigned to it, its effectiveness depends largely on the human factor using it.