The AGS-17 Plamya (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Пламя; ''Flame'') is a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

-designed

automatic grenade launcher An automatic grenade launcher (AGL) or grenade machine gun is a grenade launcher that is capable of fully automatic fire, and is typically loaded with either an ammunition belt or magazine. These weapons are often mounted on vehicles or helicopt ...

in service worldwide.

Description

The AGS-17 is a heavy

infantry support weapon A crew-served weapon is any weapon system that is issued to a crew of two or more individuals performing the same or separate tasks to run at maximum operational efficiency, as opposed to an individual-service weapon, which only requires one per ...

designed to operate from a tripod or mounted on an installation or vehicle. The AGS-17 fires 30 mm grenades in either direct or indirect fire to provide suppressive and lethal fire support against soft-skinned or fortified targets. The weapon uses a blowback mechanism to sustain operation. Rounds are fired through a removable (to reduce barrel stress) rifled barrel. The standard metal ammunition drum contains 29 linked rounds. The tripod is equipped with fine levelling gear for indirect fire trajectories.

Development

Development of the AGS-17 (''Avtomaticheskiy Granatomyot Stankovyi''—Automatic Grenade launcher, Mounted) started in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in 1965 by the OKB-16 design bureau (now known as the

KB Tochmash The JSC Precision Engineering Design Bureau named after A. E. Nudelman (russian: Конструкторское бюро точного машиностроения им. А. Э. Нудельмана, Konstruktorskoye Byuro Tochnogo Mashinostroeni ...

), under the leadership of Alexander F. Kornyakov. This lightweight weapon was to provide infantry with close to medium range fire support against enemy personnel and unarmored targets, like trucks, half-tracks, jeeps and sandbag-protected machine-gun nests. The first prototypes of the new weapon entered trials in 1969, with mass production commencing in 1971. The AGS-17 was widely operated and well-liked by Soviet troops in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

as a ground support weapon or as a vehicle weapon on improvised mounts installed on armoured personnel carriers and trucks. A special airborne version of the AGS-17, the AG-17A, was developed for installation on helicopters, including the

Mi-24 Hind The Mil Mi-24 (russian: Миль Ми-24; NATO reporting name: Hind) is a large helicopter gunship, attack helicopter and low-capacity troop transport with room for eight passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and has been o ...

in gun pods and the Mil Mi-8 on door mounts. This weapon had a thick aluminium jacket on the barrel and used a special mount and an electric remotely controlled trigger. It is still in use with the

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �ВSukhoputnyye voyska V}), also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Force ...

as a direct fire support weapon for infantry troops; it is also installed in several vehicle mounts and turrets along with machine guns, guided rocket launchers and sighting equipment. It is being replaced by the AGS-30 launcher, which fires the same ammunition, but weighs only 16 kg unloaded on the tripod and has an upgraded blowback action.

Variants

*AG-17A - remotely controlled aircraft-mounted version with an electric trigger mechanism. *AGS-17D - remotely controlled vehicle-mounted version with an electric trigger mechanism.

RGSh-30

Ukrainian company Precision Systems developed a

miniaturized Miniaturization ( Br.Eng.: ''Miniaturisation'') is the trend to manufacture ever smaller mechanical, optical and electronic products and devices. Examples include miniaturization of mobile phones, computers and vehicle engine downsizing. In ele ...

handheld A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...

version of AGS-17 called RGSh-30 "in order to create a grenade launcher that could respond to the needs of Ukrainian units and special forces operating in the Donbas". RGSh-30 is designed to disable armored vehicles. that can be carried like an assault rifle. RGSh-30 uses magazines with five 30mm VOG-17 grenades. Precision Systems plans to develop versions using 20mm, 25mm, and 40mm grenades.

Ammunition

The AGS-17 fires 30×29 mm belted cartridges with a steel cartridge case. Two types of ammunition are commonly fired from the AGS-17. The VOG-17M is the version of the original 30 mm grenade ammunition, which is currently available and has a basic high explosive fragmentation warhead. The VOG-30 is similar, but contains a better explosive filling and an enhanced fragmentation design that greatly increases the effective blast radius. New improved VOG-30D grenade was taken into service in 2013 for use with AGS-17 and AGS-30 grenade launchers. The Bulgarian weapons manufacturer Arcus produces AR-ROG hand grenades based on VOG-17 cartridges and UZRGM (Russian: УЗРГМ), which is also a Soviet design of fuse. * VOG-17M (HE) * IO-30 (HE) * IO-30TP (Practice) * VOG-30 (HE) * VOG-30D (HE) * VUS-30 (Smoke)

Users

Current

* Jones, Richard D. Jane's Infantry Weapons 2009/2010. Jane's Information Group; 35 edition (January 27, 2009). . * * – imported * * – a modernized version, the AGL-30M, produced locally by

Arsenal AD JSC Arsenal AD ( bg, Арсенал АД) is a Bulgarian joint-stock company based in Kazanlak, engaged primarily in the manufacture of firearms and military equipment. It is Bulgaria's oldest arms supplier. History The company's history can ...

* * – produced by Norinco based on captured examples from Mujahideen groups. * * * : Used during Cenepa war 1995. * * * * – produced under license * * * – designated the M93 * * * * * * – designated the M93 Produced under license. * * : used by the

Sudanese Armed Forces The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF; ar, القوات المسلحة السودانية, Al-Quwwat al-Musallaha as-Sudaniyah) are the military forces of the Republic of the Sudan. In 2011, IISS estimated the regular forces' numbers at personnel, whi ...

, some captured by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North * * * * – Made under license in

Z125 Factory Z1, Z-1, or Z.1 may refer to: * Z.1 or the Flow of Funds, a U.S. government fiscal report * Z.1, an anti-tank barrier known as Admiralty scaffolding * Z-1 (band), a Japanese idol group * Z1 class Melbourne tram * Z-1 (comics), a List of DC Comics ch ...

Known under the Vietnamese industrial name of SPL-17.

Former

* – designated ''30 KrKK AGS-17'', replaced by the HK GMG in 2005 * – used in the 1990s, now replaced by the HK GMG * – passed on to successor states

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ags-17 Automatic grenade launchers Cold War weapons of the Soviet Union Grenade launchers of the Soviet Union KBP Instrument Design Bureau products Military equipment introduced in the 1970s