IMFDB policy on Russkie rockets.
 

Point 1: RPG does not stand for "Rocket Propelled Grenade". It's a Russian acronym for "Ruchnoy Protivotankovyy Granatomyot". Translated to Americanese it comes out as "Handheld Antitank Grenade Launcher".

Request: Make it official IMFDB policy to ban the phrases "rocket propelled grenade" and "rocket propelled grenade launcher". Using them to refer to any RPG models is incorrect. Using them to refer to antitank weapons in general is akin to calling all assault rifles "AK's".

What am I doing about it: Changing it or deleting it when I see it, but it's far too widespread to tackle alone. This will probably be made more difficult by know-it-all gamers who insist on being incorrect. Having this be an official policy would be very helpful.


Point 2: SA7 Grail is not an official Soviet or Russian designation. It is a name assigned by NATO's Air Standardization Coordinating Committee for identification purposes. The official designation is 9K32 Strela-2.

Request: Make it official IMFDB policy to use official designations for labeling and not code words. Code words are just slang terms with suits and diplomas, and we don't refer to magazines as "clips", firearms as "gats", or Mini-14 Ranch Rifles as "high powered assault type weapons".

What am I doing about it: Nothing. The last time I tried to correct this error (on the page for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas), somebody reverted it shortly after. I'll pick it up again, but not without the green light from an admin.
EDIT: It looks like I changed it back again in february and nobody's had a problem with it since, but I'm still going to wait for admin input.

I guess I'm going to have to start calling RPG's Rocket Propelled Grenades just because you hate it :D

RPG is the new Bazooka.

Found this little gem while doing the rounds.

http://imgur.com/1b9LM.jpg

While obviously not all anti-tank weapons or grenade launchers are RPGs, I think calling an RPG-7 a rocket propelled grenade launcher is a total non-issue. An RPG literally is a rocket propelled grenade launcher, that's what it does. Foreign weapons are part of my job, and I can tell you that in US, British and Canadian weapons pams, that's how they're described. The point here is to be understood.

The same with using NATO reporting names for Soviet weapons systems. That's the commonly accepted name in the West, even among professionals. Why use a name no one will recognize? Just to prove how much smarter you are than your reader? That accomplishes nothing.

Using the official term for a weapon is alot less common than you probably realize. The M1 Garand is actually the "US Rifle, Cal .30, M1". The Winchester 97 Trench Gun is actually the "US Combat Riot Shotgun M1917 (Winchester)". Non US-military Colt 1911s are actually the Colt Government Model. Where does it end? Should we start writing it out in Cyrillic too?

I agree with Nyles, keep the western names and please don´t edit them.

I'd have to disagree with you both. The purpose of the site is to inform and educate. Wrong is wrong, no matter how many people believe it to be right. We are here to dispel myth and would not allow other silly notions to be held as true.

Technically the warhead is propelled by a gunpowder charge, the rocket motor is a secondary device that engages once the warhead is already in motion.

Nothing other than to educate the populace of what is factually true, just like every other tidbit of knowledge on this site.

It ends here because I can't think of any possible reason to extend this argument to anything else. It really is an isolated case. "Rocket Propelled Grenade" entered the lexicon due to somebody's ignorance and unwillingess to do the bare minimum of research and has stuck in the collective conciousness along with all the other misinformation about about kinetic energy, magazine capacity, and terminal ballistics.

The last thing we want is a civil war. We need consensus.

The average eejit is going to say "tl;dr" and keep on calling it a Rocket Propelled Grenade