can any "military" DUer identify this weapon ?

[tocqueville]

it doesn't seem "low-tech" to me...

text to the picture :

An insurgent carries a shoulder-fired rocket in the restive streets of Ramadi, 100 kms west of Baghdad, late 10 May 2006. The governor of the southern Iraqi province of Basra suspended the city's police chief accusing him of links to groups involved in terrorism as US President George W. Bush described militias as one of Iraq's main challenges.(AFP/File)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060513/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_060513192002

(the Iraq slideshow on this page is very interesting and shows among other things new protests at the WH and burials of US soldiers)

[hobbit709]

1. Looks like some vaiation

a L.A.W.(Light Anti-tank Weapon)

[tocqueville]

2. yep but is it western or eastern ? nt

[FogerRox]

3. I am not military, but thats a LAW.

[file83]

4. It's "low-tech" in the sense that it's pretty much just aim and fire...

...there are no guidance systems (wire guidance nor laser guidance).

[kentuck]

5. Right...

it looks like a homemade shoulder-held rocket launcher...

[Proud_Democratt]

6. L.A.W.

light anti-tank weapon.

[HeeBGBz]

26. Yup, it's a LAW

I used to shoot those things in training. Lightweight, one shot wonder.

[madrchsod]

7. here ya go--------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG-22
RPG-22 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

it`s a version of this weapon in the picture

[file83]

8. Yes, and here is another reference for the record...

...just scroll down to "M-72, 66mm Light Anti-tank Weapon (LAW)"

Clicky here: http://users.pandora.be/wolfhounds/wolf10.htm

[tocqueville]

9. looks like it, Russian then, makes sense...

The Soviet RPG-22 Neto (Net) is a one-shot disposable anti-tank rocket launcher first deployed in 1985. The RPG-22 is based on the RPG-18 rocket launcher, but fires larger a 72.5 mm fin stabilised projectile. The weapon can be prepared to fire in around 10 seconds, and can penetrate 400 mm of armour.


Specifications
Calibre: 72.5 mm
Length
Extended for firing: 850 mm
Unarmed: 785 mm
Weight: 2.8 kg
Range:
Maximum: 250 m (maximum)
Typical: 150 to 200 m
Velocity:
Muzzle: 133 m/s
Peak: 300 m/s
Warhead: HEAT with penetration of 400 mm versus RHA, 1.2 m of brick or 1 m of concrete.

[TahitiNut]

10. It's probably the older RPG-18

:shrug: Huge stockpiles of old Soviet weapons made it into the Middle East.

[tocqueville]

11. I checked the M72 LAW US on pictures

can't really see the difference. Because if it is an US weapon it would be intresting to know how it got into the insurgents hands...

[Nickster]

13. International arms dealers. Nothing new, these rocket launchers are cheap

and mass produced, they get sold to arms dealers by the truckload and then they get smuggled to whoever pays for them. With the Iraq border full of holes, wouldn't be that hard to truck them in.

[TahitiNut]

20. The trigger and back-end look different to me.

Hard to tell -- and it's been a long, long time since I had anything to do around such stuff.

[Nickster]

12. My bet is the M-72 LAW

[yella_dawg]

14. If that's a LAW, the guy is posing.

The firing button is on top of the tube, and the right hand must wrap around so that the fingers contact the switch. Plus, if I remember right (twenty five years ago) the carry strap is integral, so no homaged strap is needed. Otherwise, it looks pretty close except for the finish. Wrong color / texture. Looks a bit short too.

[Nickster]

15. Yeah I was thinking that too. You can't see the sights either, pretty big

set of sights at the front and just after the trigger, they have to be flipped down. So I'm guessing a pose as well. If I remember right, you had to pull it open, so it got longer. That could be why it looks a bit short in the pic.

[jmowreader]

16. It's not an M72 LAW

The Russian disposable LAWs and the US M72 LAW are all collapsible weapons, but on the M72 the outer tube is the front of the weapon. On the Russian weapons, the outer tube is the back.

The weapon in question is being fired small-end-forward.

[heartofthesiskiyou]

17. Yea LAW... The weapon has a unique

quality in it's radioactive lens system that remains active for about 1-2 hours once it is activated by pulling the two tubes apart. It was designed to answer the disproportionate numbers of armored vehicles in the warsaw pact compared to allied forces. Many of the forces in the allied side had little training in combat arms as they were mostly support personnel. The special nature of the site was the the radio active screen of the site refracted and focused a kind of a picture of the target that could be lined up easily in the cross hairs instead of three pictures(rear sight, front sight and target and then lining them up, was simplified to one picture automatically refracted on a little screen). It was more like looking at a computer screen and shooting a target with a spot on it were the round would hit. A weapon without this feature takes much more practice because the alignment of the front sight with the rear sight is different for each person and each time it is aimed at a target. This resulted in say an allied female nurse with minor amount of training a year later pick up the weapon and place rounds on the target greater than 90% on the time. The plan was for when the balloon went up each soldier no matter what MOS would be issued five of them each, which numerically exceding the number of opposing armor the warsaw pact would be sending. It's a very effective weapon. I never missed a target once with it at distances of 400-1000 meters.

[Jara sang]

18. LAW light anti-tank weapon

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

19. Dunno. But can any DUer identify the laundry detergent...

...used by this "insurgent"? I mean, just look at how clean those clothes look! The shine on that hood is very impressive too, but I can't see any eye-holes in it. Are those Birkenstock sandals?

Sure the camera flash might wash out even the most stubborn stains, but there's something about that image that I don't trust. It's also odd that this Yahoo article about Basra features an image purportedly of an insurgent in Ramadi.

BTW: I'm not crapping on tocqueville's question about the weapon -- many people have offered answers -- I just wanted to comment on the rest of the photo.

[heartofthesiskiyou]

21. interesting

you are on the observant end of the spectrum.

[FormerOstrich]

23. I noticed that, too,

Wrinkle_In_Time. Plus, it seems to me this is a very young person or a woman. Look at how tiny thier wrists are. I'm not sure if that is a thumb nail or white on the weapon but if it's the nail it is very clean. I think it's an odd picture.

[tocqueville]

25. it's obvious that the "guy" is posing

it's a propaganda picture, probably taken by a non-western journalist - and passed to AFP, with the purpose of showing what "neat" stuff the insurgents have. That's why it's interesting to identify the weapon.

[nytemare]

22. Light Antitank Weapon.....looks like I was beat to it.

I was actually in the last Basic Training company to train on it in 1990-1991.

It doesn't look like he took the back cover off, though, which could be trouble.

[Best_man23]

24. Looks like a version of the RPG-22

It could possibly be the older RPG-18 or one of the newer versions, RPG-26 or 27. If its one of the newer versions, it has a warhead that could penetrate reactive armor on M1A1/A2 tanks.

As an earlier post stated, there is a ton of old weapons and munitions in the Middle East. Several months ago, I saw a photo of Taliban fighters carrying World War II era Soviet PPsh 41 submachine guns.

[-..__...]

27. It's not an M-72 LAW or anything of US manufacture.

The pale green color makes me think Soviet, Eastern European or Chinese.

It's also a live round and not a trainer or inert tube.