Russian soldier tries explosive arrows in wild war experiment
The war in Ukraine is one of the strangest situations that would sooner be right at home in games or action movies rather than in reality. A case in point is a Russian trying to emulate Rambo or Prophet from Crysis 3 using a bow and arrows with attached fragmentation grenades. We explain whether this combination makes sense.
Attaching grenades to arrows and shooting them with a bow seems simple, but it is not. The main problem is that an explosive arrow moves much slower than a grenade launched from a grenade launcher and does not spin as fast, which can cause the fuse to fail to arm in time.
The standard for VOG-17/25 calibre 30/40 mm grenades or grenades from newer anti-tank grenade launchers such as the RGW90 is arming after a certain distance measured by the number of revolutions of the grenade during flight. For example, a grenade should arm after about 20 meters (approximately 22 yards), corresponding to roughly 20 revolutions.
The second problem is the possibility of the explosive arrow detonating when trying to shoot it, as different forces act on the fuse than usual, which can cause premature fuse detonation.
The recording shows that the Russian seems to be using VOG-17 30 mm grenades intended for AGS-17 family machine grenade launchers. This unit lacked AGS grenade launchers but had ammunition for them, so this combination is better than nothing.
It is also worth noting that the shot's range is not impressive, but this is most likely due to the use of an ordinary bow rather than some compound construction with a greater draw weight.
VOG-17 grenades are fragmentation constructions with a blast radius of at least 6 meters (approximately 20 feet), containing a 30-gram (approximately 1 oz) RDX explosive charge surrounded by pre-fragmented wire in a thin steel casing. Depending on the specific grenade, the arming range of VOG-17 grenades ranges from 10 to 60 meters (approximately 33 to 197 feet).
We are dealing with a simple impact fuse here, which is also equipped with a self-destructor designed to cause self-destruction after about 28 or 36 seconds from arming.
