Description

The RGD-5 hand grenade is a Russian anti-personnel fragmentation grenade designed in the late 1950s. Millions of the RGD-5s have been manufactured to date and the grenades (and its variants) are still manufactured in Russia, Bulgaria, China and Georgia. The grenade is still in service in many of Russia’s formerly occupied territories as well as various foreign countries, including many Middle Eastern nations.

The grenade is egg-shaped with no external ribbing, except for a lateral ridge where the two halves of the grenade join. It contains a 110 gram charge of TNT and weighs a total of approximately 310 grams. Typically, the RGD-5 contains a 3-4 second fuze however it is sometimes fitted with fuzes of varying delays; between 0 (instantaneous) and 13 seconds, used in booby traps. An internal fragmentation liner generates approximately 350 fragments upon detonation.

The estimated distance the grenade can be thrown is around 40-50 meters. While the effective kill zone of the RGD-5 is within 3 meters of the detonation site, combatants caught within 15 meters will still be inflicted with minor to severe injuries. Though not as sophisticated as modern grenades, which can be designed to penetrate standard body armor, the RGD-5 is still an effective and very inexpensive weapon to inflict severe injuries to the unprotected limbs.