"Motor Rifle Troops-The Guy with the RPG?" Topic

Ok cold war topic, the motor rif;e platoon TO&E time.
Especially for the AK74 era.

Platoon Officer
Sgt
Dragunov sniper

Three infantry sections of;
RPK gunner and assistant
RPG gunner and assistant
Rifleman with 30mm under barrel grenade launcher
Rifleman

Makes sense so far.
The RPK guy, well that is obvious enough.
The lone rifleman, two assistants and even the lone 30mm grenage launcher guy all get AK74s.

The guy stuck dragging around the RPG, does he get something besides the RPG, a rifle or a pistol even?

Need to have a look..I was in artillery (gun operator), and I had RPG+PM handgun. The reason in this case was simple – AK behind your back affects your work with optics and handles, while PM doesn't. Now, since the rezt of the crew have AK's it is kinda logic to give RPG to the lazy guy who is not loaded like the rest…good thing I was not obliged to carry it all the time – normally it was resting near the howitzer ammo.

EDIt: found that some of RPG soldiers had AK-74 SU – it is a shortened version of AK-74. Makes sense, as MR face more fire and heat than us gunners.

According to the US Army field manual on the Soviet Army (FM100-2-3), RPG7 gunners in a BMP Motor Rifle Regiment only had the PM for backup.

Thanks Barin and Lion.
Makes sense.
Too much stuff.

Besides, USSR was a lot like US.
It was never a problem using an RPG against a man target.
You can not have "too much" firepower.

I've read both options for the RPG gunner's backup weapon (one or the other of the pistol, or SMG).