Milipol 2025: New Turkish RDS40 40 mm automatic grenade launcher brings compact indirect fire to land and sea.

Repkon Defence has introduced an updated version of its RDS40 40 mm automatic grenade launcher at Milipol 2025, keeping NATO 40x53 mm compatibility while refining ergonomics, feeding, and safety features. The refresh builds on combat use in Ukraine and growing integration on vehicles, boat,s and remote weapon stations, positioning the system for wider adoption among armed forces seeking compact indirect fire support

At Milipol 2025, Turkish manufacturer Repkon Defence is using the latest iteration of its RDS40 automatic grenade launcher to signal that the weapon has moved beyond showpiece status and into real operational use. The 40 mm system, already documented with Ukrainian assault brigades and reportedly in delivery to the Turkish Armed Forces, keeps its simple blowback design and NATO standard 40x53 mm high velocity ammunition, but arrives in Paris with a reworked sighting system, safer top cover, clearer belt feed layout and user adjustable feeding cycle, all pitched as practical fixes drawn from field feedback rather than clean sheet reinvention.
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The RDS40 AGL is an automatic grenade launcher (AGL) with air cooling, operating on a blowback principle, and designed to deliver indirect fire support at short and medium range (Picture source: Army Recognition)

The RDS40 AGL is an automatic grenade launcher (AGL) with air cooling, operating on a blowback principle, and designed to deliver indirect fire support at short and medium range. The weapon uses 40x53 mm ammunition, fires in fully automatic mode, and is fed from the left side by an ammunition belt linked with M16A2 links, placed in boxes of thirty-two or forty-eight rounds. Overall length is one thousand and eighty-five millimetres, with a height of two hundred and twenty-five millimetres and a width of three hundred and thirty-seven millimetres.

The barrel is four hundred and thirteen millimetres long with twenty-four grooves, and the system weighs thirty-five kilograms without an ammunition box. Muzzle velocity is 240 metres per second, with a rate of fire between three hundred and three hundred and seventy-five rounds per minute. The stated maximum range exceeds two thousand metres, with an effective range of one thousand five hundred metres against point targets and two thousand metres for area targets. Accuracy is given as a deviation of about one metre in azimuth and elevation at one thousand five hundred metres, placing the system within the usual performance level for indirect support weapons of this category.

Platform integration is a central element of the Milipol presentation. The RDS40 AGL can be mounted on a standard M3 tripod for land employment, either in static positions or as a local strongpoint. It can also be installed on armoured personnel carriers, in manually operated mounts, or within remote weapon stations, in order to provide short-range saturation fire in support of embarked units. Coast Guard boats, amphibious platforms, and certain patrol craft can receive the system through a standardised interface, ensuring continuity of fire between land and maritime sectors. Dismounted ground forces, infantry units, special forces, and military police are among the intended users for base defence, area control, or close support tasks. Finally, the weapon can be fitted to tanks and self-propelled howitzers to reinforce close-in self-protection using a remote weapon station, in a role focused on countering hostile infantry groups or short-range targets.

Compared with the earlier version, Repkon Defence underlines several design changes. The mechanical sight has been redesigned to shorten target acquisition time, with a simplified rear sight aimed at reducing adjustment errors. The user now has access to adjustable feeding time directly in the field, allowing fine-tuning according to mission profile or engagement conditions, even though the precise impact of this feature on long-term reliability still requires more detailed documentation.

The top cover, which on many automatic grenade launchers tends to slam shut under strong wind, is held open by a spring-based stabilising device. This choice seeks to limit risk to the gunner and reduce mechanical stress during belt loading. The control grip, trigger, and safety lever have also been reworked, with a new safety profile intended to be more visible and easier to operate. The orientation of links and rounds on the feed side has been made clearer to prevent belts from being inserted in the wrong direction, a common source of stoppages on this type of system.

The previous version already featured a blowback operating system, air cooling, and the use of the standard M3 tripod, as well as the possibility of installation on a range of vehicles and boats in widely varying climatic conditions. In this configuration, the RDS40 AGL is positioned as a modular support weapon that can be shifted from a land tripod to a naval mount or vehicle cradle without major modification. At the tactical level, a 40 mm automatic grenade launcher provides units with a high volume of fire capable of engaging positions behind light cover, securing crossroads, or saturating assembly areas, using high-explosive fragmentation ammunition as well as dual-purpose, training, and tracer rounds.

Contextual elements linked to Ukraine indicate the system’s international spread. Photographs published in January 2024 show Ukrainian soldiers equipped with Turkish-made RDS40 AGLs, reportedly fielded by the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade. According to open sources, these automatic grenade launchers, initially introduced in 2022, appear on the front line while neither Ankara nor Kyiv officially confirms their transfer or the exact framework of their acquisition, whether through direct supply, a commercial contract or delivery under a military assistance arrangement. The use of these systems on the Ukrainian battlefield nonetheless suggests that the RDS40 AGL has entered a phase of real operational employment, even though the quantities delivered and detailed feedback from the field still need to be documented through additional public data.

The new appearance at Milipol 2025 presents Repkon Defence as a supplier seeking to consolidate the position of the RDS40 AGL in the 40 mm NATO-compatible automatic grenade launcher segment. The existence of a version already deployed in Ukraine, the updated design, and the focus on integration on armoured, naval and land platforms indicate that the manufacturer is aiming for broader circulation of its system among armed forces and security services interested in compact indirect fire support capabilities. Any projection towards other markets, however, remains hypothetical and requires later confirmation through official announcements and publicly acknowledged contracts in order to assess more precisely the level of proliferation of this grenade launcher in the coming years.