rocket flamethrower

[C130]

I'm surprise we don't see these used as often. the Shmel to me has more utility than the RPG-7. for attacking light vehicles,bunkers/buildings, men out in the open.

RPO-A Shmel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

M202 FLASH - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Transhumanist]

I'm surprise we don't see these used as often. the Shmel to me has more utility than the RPG-7. for attacking light vehicles,bunkers/buildings, men out in the open.

RPO-A Shmel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

M202 FLASH - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is why we don't seem the M202 used by the US too often:

Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons (Protocol III).

https://www.icrc.org/ihl/INTRO/515

While not a true incendiary weapon, the M202's ammo produces an incendiary effect similar to Napalm, one like buring jet fuel that sticks and lingers.

The M202A1 features four tubes that can load 66 mm incendiary rockets. The M74 rockets are equipped with M235 warheads, containing approximately 1.34 pounds (0.61 kg) of an incendiary agent. The substance, often mistaken for napalm, is in fact TPA (thickened pyrophoric agent).

TPA is triethylaluminum (TEA) thickened with polyisobutylene. TEA, an organometallic compound, is pyrophoric and burns spontaneously at temperatures of 1200 °C (2192 °F) when exposed to air. It burns "white hot" because of the aluminum, much hotter than gasoline or napalm. The light and heat emission is very intense and can produce skin burns from some (close) distance without direct contact with the flame, by thermal radiation alone.

M202 FLASH

This has cause legal problems, especially when therombaric weapons are used near civilian locations - as their use is restricted by the Geneva Protocols, which the US follows. Reports of their use in Afghanistan have been denied:

U.S. Denies Incendiary Weapon Use in Afghanistan