LPO-50 Flamethrower
| Factions | Weapon | Icon | Classes | Fuel | Damage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | Burn Over Time | |||||
 VC |
 LPO-50 Flamethrower |
 |
 Engineer |
100 | 5-15 | 45 |
| Designation | Weapon Type | Fire Rate | Flame Range | Damage | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [[]] | Flamethrowers | 600 RPM | 512 (Hammer Units?) | 15 | 12 kg (26.46 lbs) |
| Full name | Caliber | Place of Origin | Date | Manufacturer | Barrel Length | Total Length | Weapon Script Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FN | flamethrower fuel | Soviet Union | 1953 | ARM | in ( mm) | in ( mm) | weapon_lpo50 |
The LPO-50 is a Soviet man-portable flamethrower developed in the 1950s as a replacement for earlier wartime backpack flamethrowers. It uses a three-tank backpack unit feeding a flame projector, allowing the operator to deliver short bursts of burning fuel at close-to-medium range. The LPO-50 is best known for its three-shot arrangement (one per tank) and its limited but notable appearance in Vietnam-era combat and captured-weapon displays.
HISTORY
The LPO-50 (Lyogkiy Pekhotnyy Ognyemyot; “Light Infantry Flamethrower”) was developed in the early 1950s to modernize Soviet infantry flamethrower capability after World War II. In contrast to older compressed-gas systems, the LPO-50 used a backpack of three fuel cylinders and an electrically initiated firing system, with each tank intended to deliver a short discharge. Contemporary descriptions emphasize its three-cylinder layout and a practical effective range on the order of tens of meters to roughly 100 meters depending on conditions.
In Southeast Asia, LPO-50-pattern flamethrowers appeared in limited numbers through Soviet and Chinese support, and Chinese-produced derivatives (commonly described as license-built copies of the LPO-50) were used by North Vietnamese forces in assaults on fortified positions. Vietnam War reporting describes flamethrowers being employed during attacks such as the 1967 action at Con Thien, and Australian Army historical curation has documented a captured Viet Cong flamethrower of this type placed on public display. While never as common as rifles, machine guns, or RPGs, the LPO-50 and its copies filled a specialized role for bunker reduction, trench clearing, and shock effect.
Sources
- Australian Department of Defence – “History unit puts ‘fear weapon’ on display”
- Small Arms Review – “Fire from the East – the Russian flamethrower LPO-50”
- HistoryNet (Vietnam Magazine) – “North Vietnam’s Type 74 Flamethrower”
- Chris McNab, The Flamethrower (Osprey Publishing)