
The Hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher 7 (best known by its Russian acronym RPG-7) is a portable and unguided shoulder-fired rocket propelled grenade designed by the Soviet Union in 1961. It replaced the earlier RPG-2 design from 1949 and its fame led to an English backronym "rocket-propelled grenade" coming from its transliterated Russian abbreviation. The RPG became popular with irregular and guerrilla forces in addition to the Soviet Army and Eastern Bloc nations, with 9,000,000+ RPGs being made and the weapon being used in almost every war across the continents since the Vietnam War and other conflicts since the mid-1960s. Its use is not only for anti-tank purposes; it can also be used to shoot down planes or helicopters in addition to pummeling buildings and regular vehicles.