The destructive properties of the stick grenade relied on its explosive payload, rather than the fragmentation effect, which was advantageous against hard targets.

By late 1940, the British had brought into production a purpose-built adhesive anti-tank grenade - known as the "sticky bomb"[2] - that was not very successful in combat.

Chinese troops strapped explosives like grenade packs or dynamite to their bodies and threw themselves under Japanese tanks to blow them up.

The grenade design may ensure this by deploying a small drogue parachute or fabric streamers after being thrown, or improvised stabilisation fins if dropped from a drone.

Also developed by the UK during the war was the No 74 ST Grenade, popularly known as the "sticky bomb", in which the main charge was held in a glass sphere covered in adhesive.

In anticipation of a German invasion, the British Army asked for ideas for a simple, easy to use, ready for production and cheap close-in antitank weapon.

The ST Grenade was a government sponsored initiative, by MIR(c), a group tasked with developing weapons for use in German and Italian occupied territory, and they placed the ST Grenade into mass production at Churchill's insistence, but seeing how it was operated, the British Army rejected it for the Home Guard much less their regular forces.

The No 74 Grenade was later issued to troops as an emergency stop-gap measure against lightly armored Italian tanks in North Africa, where it proved—to the surprise of many—highly effective.

The Panzerwurfmine(L) was lethal, and inexpensive to manufacture, but required considerable skill to throw accurately and was issued only to specially trained infantry tank-killer teams.

[15] It did not take long after the Russians captured the German Panzerwurfmine(L) to come out with their own hand-thrown anti-tank grenade with a HEAT warhead.

In 1940, they developed a crude anti-tank grenade that used the simple blast effect of a large high explosive charge, designated RPG-40, which was stabilized in flight by a ribbon released after it was thrown.

In the last year of the war, they introduced the RPG-6, a total redesign of the RPG-43 with an improved kite-tail drogue in the handle and a standoff for the HEAT warhead, drastically increasing both accuracy and penetration, which was reported to be over 100 mm (3.9 in), more than adequate to cause catastrophic damage to any tank if it impacted the top.

[21] In the late 1970s, the U.S. Army was worried about the lack of emergency anti-tank weapons for issue to its rear area units, to counter isolated enemy armored vehicles infiltrating or being air dropped.

However, in the recent Iraq War, the RKG-3 anti-tank hand grenade has made a reappearance with Iraqi insurgents who used them primarily against U.S. Humvees, Strykers and MRAPs, which lack the heavier armor of tanks.

PJSC Mayak modifies the grenade[24] into the RKG 1600 by changing the fuze timing and adding 3D printed fins to stabilise its flight when dropped from a commercial drone.