The RPG-32 Barkas (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: РПГ-32) is a reusable Russian shoulder-launched, unguided

anti-tank rocket Anti-tank warfare refers to the military strategies, tactics, and weapon systems designed to counter and destroy enemy armored vehicles, particularly tanks. It originated during World War I following the first deployment of tanks in 1916, and ...

system.

Development

It was developed by Bazalt between 2005 and 2007, under contract and at the request of

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

. The first RPG-32 'Nashshab' grenade launchers were to be delivered to Jordan from Russia in 2008, and it was planned that the RPG-32 and its ammunition would be mass-produced in Jordan under license at the JADARA factory. On 30 May 2013,

Rostec Rostec, formally trading as State Corporation "Rostec", fully the State Corporation for the Promotion of the Development, Manufacture, and Export of High Tech Products "Rostec" and formerly Rostekhnologii, is a Russian State corporation (Russia), ...

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

(CEO) Sergey Chemezov and King Abdullah II opened a production facility for the Russian RPG-32 in Jordan.

Design

It was designed and developed by state-owned

unitary enterprise A unitary enterprise () is a government-owned corporation in Russia and some other post-Soviet states. Unitary enterprises are business entities that have no ownership rights to the assets that they use in their operations. This form is possibl ...

(FGUP) "

Bazalt NPO Bazalt () is a weapons manufacturing company in Russia that took over (or continued) the production of weapons such as the RPG-7 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. NPO Bazalt manufactures the RPG-7V2 and the RPG-29. AO NPO Bazalt is ...

" weapon manufacturing company. It is also assembled in Jordan from Russian-made kits from Bazalt under the name "RPG Nashab" (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: ار بي جي نشاب).

Combat history

In March 2016, video was released of

Ansar al-Sharia (Yemen) Jama'at Ansar al-Shari'a (; '), also known as Ansar al-Shari'a, is a Yemen-based umbrella organization which includes units from several militant Islamic groups of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). In 2011, AQAP created Ansar Al-Shari ...

using the RPG-32 against

Houthi The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, is a Zaydi Shia Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s. It is predominantly made up of Zaydi Shias, with their namesake leadership being drawn largely ...

forces during the Yemeni Civil War. It is unknown how the terrorist group could have acquired such a modern and advanced weapon system, but it is likely they were initially supplied to Yemeni loyalist forces by the user nations of Jordan or the UAE, part of the

Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen On 26 March 2015, Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of nine countries from West Asia and North Africa, launched a military intervention in Yemen at the request of Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who had been ousted from the capital, Sa ...

, then captured by militants. The RPG-32 has also been seen in use by Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq.

Variants

Nashshab

In February 2015, Jordanian company Jadara Equipment & Defence Systems revealed they had incorporated the RPG-32 into a quad-launcher

remote weapon station A remote controlled weapon station (RCWS), remotely operated weapon system (ROWS), or remote weapon system (RWS), is a remotely operated light or medium-caliber weapon system, often equipped with a fire-control system, that can be installed on Co ...

(RWS). The "Nashshab" (Archer) system comes in two versions: the Quad-1 is

tripod A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged (triangular stance) design provides good stability against gravitational loads ...

-mounted meant to defend fixed positions, with tubes arranged in a 2×2 configuration and controlled either remotely or through a wire up to 300 m away; the Quad-2 is vehicle mounted for use against infantry, vehicles, and pillboxes in urban terrain, with tubes arranged in a 4×1 configuration and operated from a control unit inside the vehicle. The stations have day/night sights with rangefinding and automatic targets acquisition capabilities.

Raptor

In November 2022, Jadara Equipment & Defence Systems announced they would begin production of the Raptor rocket launcher later that year. The Raptor is a development of the Nashshab RPG-32 using a 107 mm rocket. It uses the same GS-2R reusable sighting system with a

laser rangefinder A laser rangefinder, also known as a laser telemeter or laser distance meter, is a rangefinder that uses a laser beam to determine the distance to an object. The most common form of laser rangefinder operates on the time of flight principle by ...

to calculate ballistic trajectories for better accuracy, giving it an effective range of 500 m. The warhead can penetrate 500 mm

rolled homogeneous armor Rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) is a type of vehicle armour made of a single steel composition hot-rolled to improve its material characteristics, as opposed to layered or cemented armour. Its first common application was in tanks. After World W ...

(RHA) after

explosive reactive armour Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour used in protecting vehicles, especially modern tanks, against shaped charges and hardened kinetic energy penetrators. The most common type is ''explosive reactive armour'' (ERA), but variants include ...

(ERA) and the complete system weighs . Unlike the Nashshab, which was a joint development with Russia, the Raptor will be made in Jordan entirely.

Users

* * * * * * – Came from Jordan and manufactured through third-party suppliers. *

References

{{Russian RPG series Modern anti-tank rockets of Russia Rocket-propelled grenade launchers of Russia Weapons of Jordan Bazalt products Military equipment introduced in the 2010s