RGD-5 (РГД-5) Hand Grenade

The RGD-5 is now in our AR powered Mobile App.

The RGD-5 (РГД-5), short for Granata Distantsionnaya (Distance Hand Grenade), is a Soviet-designed, time-delayed, high-explosive fragmentation (HE-Frag) anti-personnel grenade developed in the early 1950s. It was officially adopted into service in 1954 and has since become one of the most widely distributed and recognizable Soviet-era hand grenades.

Design and Construction

The RGD-5 has a compact, smooth, egg-shaped body with no external fragmentation grooves or ribbing, except for a lateral ridge at the join between the two shell halves. The casing is painted in green or olive drab, often with faint dimples on the surface. Its simplicity and affordability have made it a common choice for militaries and insurgent groups, particularly across Russia’s former client states, the Middle East, and Asia. Production has extended to Bulgaria, Albania, Georgia, Germany, and China, where the grenade is manufactured as the Type 59.

Operational Use

While no longer cutting-edge in terms of materials, the RGD-5 remains in widespread service. Millions have been produced over the decades, and it continues to see use in both military and irregular warfare due to its low cost, ease of use, and lethal fragmentation capability.