Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
A soldier of the 128th. Mountain Assault Brigade “Zakarpattia” trains with a interesting modification of the 40mm GP-25 Kostyor (“Bonfire”) under-barrel grenade launcher. The GP-25, first issued to Soviet Army units in 1978, is designed to be mounted underneath the barrel of AK-47 and AK-74 assault rifles along with other compatible AK series weapons. However, as can be seen here, the GP-25 has been fitted with a conversion kit that allows it to be used as a stand-alone grenade launcher.
Emblazoned on the telescoping stock is the company name Gun Power Nation, the company's logo seen on the front pistol grip mounting bracket. Gun Power Nation, based in Kyiv, Ukraine, sells the conversion kit under SKU number 7297 with a retail cost of $108 U.S. dollars. The kit consists of the stock, forward grip, and the mounting hardware...all of which are made of 7075 aluminium alloy (primary alloying element being zinc) and steel. The weight of the kit is 2 pounds, added to the 3.3 pound weight of the GP-25.
The GP-25 uses 40x53mm grenades which makes the GP-25 incompatible with U.S. 40x46mm cased grenades. As the 40x53mm grenades do not have a case, when fired, it leaves the GP-25's barrel empty and thus immediately ready for a new grenade. The GP-25 is muzzle loaded and sighting is normally done using a left side-mounted, notched quadrant sight. With a low muzzle velocity of 251 feet per second, the maximum range is no more than 400 meters with an effective range usually being around 150 meters. A trained operator can fire up to 4 grenades every minute.
The typical grenade is the VOG-25 HE-FRAG (High-Explosive Fragmentation) which has 1.7 ounces of A-IX-1 explosive in the nose. Upon firing, the VOG-25 arms itself by the time it reaches 40 meters downrange and upon detonation, a lethal blast radius of 20 feet is created. The VOG-25 (as well as all the grenades used by the GP-25) is fitted with a fuse that when it reaches between 14 to 19 seconds, it will detonate the grenade. A variant of the VOG-25 is the VOG-25P “bouncing” HE-FRAG grenade. Containing 1.3 ounces of TNT, when the VOG-25P impacts the ground, a small charge in the nose goes off and “bounces” the grenade up into the air to a maximum height of 5 feet. At that point, the VOG-25P explodes, having much the same lethality radius as the standard VOG-25. Another common grenade is the GRD series of smoke grenades. Besides the original GRD-40 smoke grenade, the newer GRD-50, GRD-100, and GRD-200 smoke grenades are used to lay down a smoke screen covering 706 cubic feet per grenade. In low wind speeds (below 3.3 miles per hour), the smoke persists for 1 minute. The numbers of the newer grenades refer to the range from the operator, in meters, at which the grenade will commence to release smoke.
The GP-25 can fire most any 40x53mm grenade designed for single-shot and/or under-barrel grenade launchers. The Bulgarian arms manufacturer Arsenal JSCo illustrates the numerous additional grenade offerings for the GP-25. The HEDP (High-Explosive Dual-Purpose) grenade has the same lethal radius as the VOG-25 but adds the ability to penetrate 50mm of rolled homogeneous plate (RHA) which makes lightly armored vehicles vulnerable to the grenade. The company offers a more potent HE-FRAG grenade that increases the lethal radius to 30 feet. The AD (Anti-Diver) grenade is designed for use by naval troops, permitting them to engage enemy frogmen to a maximum depth of 15 meters. The TBC-3 thermobaric explosive warhead creates a lethal radius of 98 feet and a disorientating effect to divers out to 328 feet. The TB (Thermobaric) grenade has a warhead packed with 3 ounces of TBC-2 explosive which, when the AF41 fuze is activated, dispenses the TBC-2 into the air which immediately detonates upon reaction with oxygen. This generates intense heat and overpressure within the burst radius. The CS grenade creates a cloud of irritant CS gas 7,062 cubic feet in size while the S&F (Sound & Flash) grenade is another non-lethal munition which is essentially a “flash bang” round, creating a near deafening noise upon detonation coupled with a flash that temporarily blinds anyone looking at it. Finally, TP or P (Target Practice or Practice) are used for training while ILL (Illumination) grenades (“star shells”) are fired into the air and upon detonation, release a parachute to slow descent while white, red, green, or yellow flares burn. Color depending, the candlepower ranges from 8,000 (green) up to 90,000 (white). The burn time for the ILL grenade is 25 seconds.
The weapon in the background is a 7.62x54mmR PKM general purpose machine-gun while of interest, the GP-25 operator has a patch on his helmet of the flag reportedly flown by the pirate Edward “Blackbeard” Teach though no evidence exists to prove it.
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