Engineering:AGS-17

AGS-17 Plamya
AGS-17 Plamya
	AGS-17 mounted on tripod.
Type	Automatic grenade launcher
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Service history
In service	1970–present
Used by	See Users
Wars	Soviet–Afghan War; South African Border War; Gulf War; Somali Civil War; First Chechen War; Second Chechen War; War in Afghanistan; Iraq War; Ivorian Civil Wars; Third Sudanese Civil War; Syrian Civil War; War in Iraq (2013–2017); Russo-Ukrainian War; Yemeni Civil War (2015–present); 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict; 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine;
Production history
Designer	KB Tochmash
Designed	1967
Manufacturer	Molot Plant
Produced	1967
Variants	AG-17A helicopter-mounted version
Specifications
Mass	31 kg
Length	840 mm
Cartridge	30×29mm grenade (ru)
Calibre	30 mm
Action	Blowback
Rate of fire	400 round/min
Muzzle velocity	185 m/s
Effective firing range	800 to 1,700 m
Feed system	29 grenades belt
Sights	Adjustable iron sights, optional mount required for optical sights

AGS-17 in Afghanistan. 1986

The AGS-17 Plamya^[8] (Russian: Пламя; Flame) is a Soviet-designed automatic grenade launcher in service worldwide.

Description

The AGS-17 is a heavy infantry support weapon 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.^[9]^[10]

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 in 1965 by the OKB-16 design bureau (now known as the KB Tochmash), under the leadership of Alexander F. Kornyakov.^[11]

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.^[11] The AGS-17 was widely operated and well-liked by Soviet troops in Afghanistan as a ground support weapon or as a vehicle weapon on improvised mounts installed on armoured personnel carriers and trucks.^[1]

A special airborne version of the AGS-17, the AG-17A, was developed for installation on helicopters, including the Mi-24 Hind 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.^[11]^[12]

It is still in use with the Russian army 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 handheld version of AGS-17 called RGSh-30^[13] "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.^[14]^[15]^[16] 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 (ru) belted cartridges with a steel cartridge case.^[17] 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.^[18]^[19] It was ordered by the Russian Defense Ministry in August 2023.^[20] The same month, the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine begun to receive VOG-17 grenades, factory modified for use by commercial drones.^[21]

The Bulgarian weapons manufacturer Arcus produces AR-ROG hand grenades based on VOG-17 cartridges and UZRGM (ru) (Russian: УЗРГМ), which is also a Soviet design of fuse.^[22] Similar improvised grenades are known as "khattabkas".^[23]

VOG-17M (HE)
IO-30 (HE)
IO-30TP (Practice)
VOG-30 (HE)
VOG-30D (HE)
VUS-30 (Smoke)

Users

Map with AGS-17 Plamya users in blue and former users in red

Current

Afghanistan^[24]
Angola^[24]^[2]
Azerbaijan^[25]^[26]
Bulgaria – a modernized version, the AGL-30M, produced locally by Arsenal AD^[27]
Chad^[24]
China – produced by Norinco based on captured examples from Mujahideen groups.^[28]^[24]^[29]
Cuba^[24]
Czech Republic
Ecuador: Used during Cenepa war 1995.^[30]
Georgia^[31]
Iraq – produced under license^[24]^[29]
Islamic State^[32]
Ivory Coast^[33]
Montenegro – designated the M93^[24]
Mozambique^[24]
Myanmar^[34]
Nicaragua^[24]
North Korea^[35]
Russia^[24]
Serbia – designated the M93^[24] Produced under license.^[36]
Sierra Leone^[37]
Slovakia^[38]
Somalia^[24]
Sudan: used by the Sudanese Armed Forces, some captured by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North^[4]
Syria^[39]
Turkey^[40]
Vietnam – Made under license in Z125 Factory.^[41]^[42] Known under the Vietnamese industrial name of SPL-17.^[43]