French Vs Russian F1 grenades

[batonroundcollector]

who copied whose, or were they possibly (body at least) designed/supplied by the same arsenal initially?

I thought it too much a coincidence that two grens of the same name and with near identical bodies were developed independently of each other...

 

[EOD]

Russia certainly took over the F-1 from France as they did with their 76mm projectile designs.

Here the Russian Mod.1915 F-1:

 

[batonroundcollector]

so did the Russians just copy the F1 from France or was there co-operation in Russia acquiring it from the French?

 

[EOD]

I do not know how much assitance the Russian would have needed to just cast F-1 bodies. That can be done without much technical effort.

But the French design of Artillery shells the Russians were using was certainly a Russian-French agreement on transfer of technology and design.

 

[batonroundcollector]

I guess that the F1 would count as one of the small arms with the longest service history then?

assume they are still knocking around in the Middle East conflicts etc and may even still be in production there (though the design has now been obsoleted in Russia/Eastern Europe)??

 

[EOD]

Some countries are certainly still making them.
Turkey for example. They just use a US type fuze. I think Russia is out of the loop for a couple of decades already.

A grenade is a stand alone weapon (no weapons system required), low tech and the shape of the F-1 is not too special or unusual. In my view no real specialty in it being in service for so long since it is only the rough shape which makes it an "F-1".

But once you mentioned it. Teh oldest item that comes to my mind is the Russian 7.62x54R cartridge which with minor modifications is in service since 1891. Still being made in doozens of countries...
No2 will be the good old 9x19 cartridge which is around since 1904 at least.