| New in Military Production |
| 05/09/2006 MBCB News |
| 24/11/2003 IMDEX/UDT ASIA 2003 exhibition, Singapore |
 |
|
|
|
| Steel Rain |
Roy Braybroolc |
|
| Conventional artillery is heavy and
expensive but has the attraction of delivering an effective warhead
against a point target with reasonable accuracy and consistency,
allowing fire to be adjusted to correct errors in the fall of shot.
However, in many cases ground targets are distributed over a large
area. Multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) are a relatively light,
mobile and economical means to saturate an area target. |
|
| The multiple-launch
rocket system concept is widely considered to have been pioneered
by the Soviet Union, and the patent granted in 1938 to the Russian
engineers Gway, Kostikov and Kleinienov certainly supports this
idea. However, the first operational use of an MLRS is thought to
have been made by a Wurfgerat of Hitler's Wehr-macht on June 22,1941,
at the start of the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Soviets began
using their famous 132 mm BM-13 Katyusha (a diminutive form of the
name Ekaterina) in the following month, and it went on to become
one of the most important weapons in the ground war. Interestingly,
the Russians favour the term 'multiple rocket launch system' - or
MRLS. |
|
 In
the late 1950s the Tula-based Splav State Research and Production
Association was commissioned to develop a new system to replace
the post war 140 mm BM-14 and that would provide two or three
times the effectiveness of existing systems. The result was the
9K51 Grad (Hail) system of 1963, with 40 tubes on a BM-21 launch
vehicle, a modified Ural-
375D truck. The 122 mm, 66.5-kg rocket, designated 9M22U or M-21
OF, is spun first by a groove in the launch-tube and then by folding
fins. It delivers an 18.4 kg blast-fragmentation warhead over
a distance of 20.4 km. Whereas earlier rockets had cast bodies,
this new design was made from sheet metal making use of the shell
cases production technology, significantly reducing cost. It may
be noted that Iraq has modified 122 mm rockets to carry biological
and nerve agents. These may well have been the M-21 series, but
Iraq also has the Egyptian Sakr-30 (Falcon-30) and the Italian
Firos 25, using a Snia-BPD rocket.
|
|
 Launcher
variations include the twelve-lube BM-21V Grad-V for air-
borne forces, the Grad-M for surface ships and the Grad-P for
insurgent forces. In 1974, the BM-21-1 Grad-1 appeared with 36
rockets on a tracked launcher. Several countries (e.g. Bulgaria,
Romania and Slovakia) produced the Grad under licence, while others
(including China, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and South Africa) developed
and marketed very similar systems. The Czech RM-70 launch vehicle
is based on a Tatra 813 truck and carries 40 reloads. Other variations
include the North Korean BM-11 with 30 tubes, the Chinese Type
81, and the Egyptian Sakr-18.
|
|
The Grad system is the
world's most widely used multiple-launch rocket system, serving
in at least 50 countries. In 2003 it will be 40 years since the
Grad entered service with the Red Army.
The Splav 9A51 Prima (First) is a derivative of the Grad with a
50-tube launcher on a Zil-131 chassis. It fires a 70kg rocket with
a 26kg warhead, allowing a salvo to saturate an area of 19 hectares,
compared to 3.5 for the earlier rocket. The Prima entered service
in 1987.
The Splav enterprise subsequently upgraded the Grad system by developing
new rockets to dispense anti-personnel and anti-armour mines, generate
smoke screens, illuminate the battlefield and jam communications.
Improved pro-pellants have increased maximum firing range from around
20 to 40 km. A second line of development employs a warhead that
separates from the rocket body and descends on a parachute to provide
a vertical impact. A third development releases two autonomously
guided anti-armour submuni lions.
The launch system has been improved, with (he introduction of two
20-tube disposable launch clusters that can be replaced within five
minutes. Announced in 1996, a joint development programme with France's
Celerg was to benefit from an improved propellant, increased firing
range and enhanced accuracy. The programme has since been terminated.
Rosoboronexport is currently marketing five upgraded rockets with
a range of up to 40 km. Israel Military Industries (IMI) markets
a Gradalar upgrade for the BM-21, retaining the launch vehicle,
but introducing two 13-lube pods from its own 160 mm Lar (Light
Artillery Rocket) system which gives a range of up to 45 km.
Demands for longer firing ranges led to the Splav enterprise developing
the 220 mm Uragan (Hurricane) 9K57 system capable of up to 35 km.
Il entered service with the Red Army in 1975 and was claimed to
be superior to the US Army's MLRS, which appeared eight years later.
Exported to Afghanistan, Syria and the Unita rebels in Angola, the
9K57 employs a 16-tube 9M140 launcher on a Zil-135LM truek, as used
by the Frog-7, and can saturate an area of 46.2 hectares with a
full salvo. The baseline rocket is the 280 kg 9M27F with a 100 kg
blast-fragmentation warhead. Olher types include the therrnobaric
9M27S. The 9K57 is claimed to have been the first MLRS with a cargo
warhead. The 9M27K2 rocket contains 312 PFM-1 antipersonnel mines,
each weighing 75 gm. The 9M27K3 has 24 PTM-1 anti-tank mines weighing
1.6 kg, and thc9M59has nine PTM-3 shaped-charge warheads weighing
4.9 kg. Each of the dispensing rockets weighs 280 kg. |
|
 The
latest of the Splav MLRS family is the 9K58 Smerch (Whirlwind),
which has a 9A52-2 launch vehicle (based on a Maz-543M truck) with
twelve 300 mm 9M55 rockets and capable of saturating an area of
67.2 hectares. With a launch weight of 800 kg. the base 9M55F blast-fragmentation
rocket delivers a 258 kg warhead. Unlike its predecessors it has
a sustainer motor that increases maximum range to 70 km. The rocket
is inertially guided, with so-called 'gas-dynamic devices' (jet
reaction controls) modifying pitch and yaw. Available rockets include
the therrnobaric 9M55S and several cargo rounds: the 9M55K with
72 1.81 kg anti-personnel bomblets, the 9M55K4 with 25 4.85 kg anti-armour
mines and the 9M55K1 with five 15kg Bazalt Motiv-3M sensor-fuzed
submunitions with twin-wavelength IR seekers.
 The Smerch entered
service with the Red Army in 1988 and was also supplied to Belarus
and the Ukraine. Kuwait has purchased 27 systems, and the UAE has
six. In 2002 the Indian Army evaluated the improved Smerch-M. which
is highly automated and fires the 9M528 rocket, using an improved
propellant to increase maximum range to 90 km. Reports indicate
that a small UAV, designated R-90, is being developed specifically
for use with the Smerch. It may be noted that, although export sales
of Russian MLRS have so far been made through state agencies (initially
Rosvoorouzhenie and more recently Rosoboronexport), Splav has recently
been granted the right to deal directly with foreign states in regard
to product support, maintenance and the upgrading of previously
supplied MLRS. […] |
| |
| "ARMADA International", February-March
2003, issue 1, pp. 92-94 |
| |
|
|
|
| New in Civil Production |
| NEW! The Publishing House of The Tula State University plans publishing the book «Multiple Rocket Launcher Systems and their Effectiveness» |
|
|
