RPG-1

The RPG-1 was a Soviet lightweight anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher with a shaped charge warhead, developed from 1944 to 1948 under G. P. Lominskiy at the Main Artillery Directorate's Small Arms and Mortar Research Range. Soviet engineers tested the German Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck and the American bazooka and tried to combine their best features. It began as the LPG-44 with a 70 millimetre PG-70 high-explosive anti-tank warhead. The launcher was a one metre soft steel tube, partly wrapped in wood to protect the operator from the heat of firing, with a pistol grip, a cocking lever and a leaf sight. The weapon was accurate only to about 50 metres, had a maximum range of 75 metres and penetrated about 140 millimetres of rolled homogeneous armour, too little against newer tanks, and its firing cap and propellant were unreliable. It was never put into production because the RPG-2 was selected, but its layout carried over to the RPG-2 and the RPG-7.