Multiple rocket launchers - weapons of past and future battles
Multiple launch rocket systems are a weapon known even to especially amateurs and people who are not interested in military affairs. If only because the famous "Katyusha" mortars belong to them. After all, whoever said anything, but it was the "Katyusha" - BM-13 - that became the first true MLRS, embodying all the main performance characteristics of this type of weapon: small size, simplicity, the possibility of simultaneous destruction of targets in large areas, surprise and high mobility.
After 1945, a number of rocket artillery samples, developed taking into account the experience of the past war, entered service with the Soviet army, such as BM-24 (1951), BM-14, 200-mm four-barreled BMD-20 (1951) and 140-mm 16 -barrel MLRS BM-14-16 (1958), as well as its towed 17-barreled version RPU-14 (on the carriage of the D-44 cannon). In the early 50s, a rather powerful and long-range MLRS "Korshun" was developed and tested, but it never went into production. However, all these installations were, in fact, only variations of the BM-13 - that is, in fact, the machines of the battlefield.
Fighting vehicle rocket artillery BM-24
Multiple launch rocket system BM-14-16
Multiple launch rocket system RPU-14
"HOW I'm glad when" Hail!"
Finally, in 1963, the world's first second-generation MLRS system was put into service.
It was the world-famous (without exaggeration) BM-21 - "Grad" with a caliber of 122 mm, which in terms of technology and today has no equal in the world. The technical solutions that arose during the development of the "Grad", one way or another, are repeated in all systems existing in the world - for example, the "folding" tail, which ensures the compactness of the guide block.
BM-21 Grad
And the main thing, perhaps, is the advantage of the machine, which favorably distinguishes it from, to be honest, many models of domestic weapons - a large modernization stock. For example, over the past 40 years, the range of the Grad has been increased from 20 to 40 km. System modifications were created for the Airborne Forces and the Navy. In 1965, within three months, a light portable MLRS "Grad-P" with a firing range of 11 km was put into mass production. Soon she passed "combat tests" in Vietnam, according to the results of which the Viet Minh guerrillas put together a saying: "How glad I am when the Grad falls!"
And today "Grad" is the most effective multiple launch rocket system in the world in terms of the combination of technical, tactical, economic and military-logistic characteristics. It is no coincidence that it was copied - legally and illegally in many countries. For example, in 1995, 32 years after its creation, Turkey decided to put it on stream.
Back in 1964, when the production of "Grad" was just beginning to be mastered, its designer Ganichev began developing a more powerful multiple launch rocket system. Its development was completed in 1976 - so the troops received the "Hurricane" with a range of 35 km and cluster munitions.
Not stopping at what has been accomplished, at the end of the 60s, the specialists of "Alloy" began designing a 300-mm MLRS with a firing range of up to 70 km. However, they were denied funding - the Minister of Defense Marshal Grechko personally pointed out to the MLRS lobbyists from the GRAU that the Soviet budget was not bottomless. As a result, work on the creation of third-generation systems dragged on for almost 20 years.
Only in 1987, the Smerch 300-mm MLRS entered service with the SA. The firing range was increased to 90 km, topographic location was carried out automatically through satellite systems. A system for correcting the flight of a rotating rocket was applied using a gas-dynamic rudder controlled by an individual electronic unit. The Smerch was also equipped with a fully mechanized loading system, using single-use transport and launch containers equipped at the plant.
MLRS "Smerch"
This weapon can be considered the most powerful non-nuclear weapon system in the world - a salvo of six "Tornadoes" can stop the advance of an entire division or destroy a small city.
The weapon turned out to be so perfect that many military experts talk about the redundancy of the "Tornado". And by the way, in the NPO Splav, according to experts, a new MLRS is being developed, which so far has the code name Typhoon. Everything depends only on money - which is much less in the budget now than in the days of Marshal Grechko.
AMERICAN UNIVERSAL
After World War II, little attention was paid to the development of MLRS in the United States.
According to Western military theorists, this type of weapon could not play a significant role in the future Third World War. Almost until the beginning of the 80s, American MLRS were inferior to Soviet ones. They were seen as weapons almost exclusively for the battlefield and infantry support, and rather were a development of the direction that represented the German "Nebelvelfer". Such, for example, was the 127-mm "Zuni". Curiously, the main technical requirement was the universal nature of multiple launch rocket systems equipped with conventional aviation rockets.
Only in 1976, by order of the military department, the development of a new MLRS began, designed to eliminate the lag behind the "potential enemy". This is how the MLRS was born, developed by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control and entered into service in 1983. We must pay tribute - the car turned out to be very good and convenient, surpassing the Soviet "Hurricanes" in the level of automation and autonomy. The MLRS launcher does not have the traditional permanent guides, which are replaced by an armored box truss - the "swinging part" of the launcher, where disposable launch containers are placed, so that MLRS can easily use two caliber projectiles - 227 and 236 mm. All control systems are concentrated in one vehicle, which also facilitates combat use, and the use of the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle as a chassis has increased the safety of crews. It was the American MLRS that became the main ones for the NATO allies.
MLRS developed by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control
In the 1990s and 2000s, a number of other MLRSs were developed for the US Army - not so powerful. For example, MLRS RADIRS, using aviation 70-mm NURS type HYDRA. Curiously, this is the most multi-barreled MLRS in the world - the number of guides can reach 114 (!). Or the ARBS multiple launch rocket system, which includes two six-container launchers of 227 mm caliber.
HOT DRAGON BREATH
Perhaps this will sound unexpected, but at the moment the PRC in terms of the level of MLRS development takes an honorable second place after Russia.
The "patriotic legend" is widely known that the creation of its own multiple launch rocket system began in the PRC only after the Soviet-Chinese armed conflict on Damansky Island, when the combat use of the "Grad" made a strong impression on the PLA command.
In fact, the development of its own MLRS in the PRC began much earlier. The first was the 107-mm Type 63 towed multiple launch rocket system, adopted by the People's Liberation Army of China in 1963. This cheap and relatively efficient system was exported to Syria, Albania, Vietnam, Cambodia, Zaire, Pakistan and a number of other countries. Licensed production was organized in Iran, North Korea and South Africa.
107-mm towed multiple launch rocket system "Type 63"
The current main model of the Chinese MLRS 122-mm 40-barreled Type 81 is indeed in many ways a copy of the Soviet BM-21. In 1983, this system was put into mass production, and its deliveries to the PLA rocket artillery divisions began.
122 mm MLRS Type 83 (Chinese "clone")
Later versions of 122-mm MLRS - with placement on an armored tracked chassis "Type 89" and on the chassis of a Tiema SC2030 "Type-90" off-road truck. These fairly high-quality vehicles have a modern, improved automated fire control system and are actively offered by China on the international arms market.
Tiema SC2030 "Type-90"
In recent years, the PLA has acquired several types of new rocket systems, significantly superior to the previous ones - 40-barreled WS-1, 273-mm 8-barreled WM-80, 302-mm 8-barreled WS-1 and, finally, the largest-caliber in world - 400 mm 6-barreled WS-2.
300 mm 10-barreled wheeled MLRS A-100
Of this number, it is necessary to single out ahead in a number of indicators even the domestic "Smerch" 300-mm 10-barreled A-100 with a firing range of up to 100 km.
In a word, the PRC has a very efficient and powerful weapon in the face of the MLRS.
EUROPEAN AND MORE
However, not only major military powers produce MLRS. The military of many countries wished to receive such a powerful means of warfare, which, moreover, is not subject to various international restrictions.
The first were the gunsmiths of Germany, who in 1969 supplied the Bundeswehr with a 110-mm 36-barreled MLRS LARS, which is still in service in two modifications (LARS-1 and LARS-2).
MLRS LARS
They were followed by the Japanese, in 1973, following the usual national policy of doing everything alone, began the production of 130-mm MLRS, two years later put into service under the name "Type 75".
Almost simultaneously, the former Czechoslovakia developed the original PM-70 machine - 40 122-mm guides, equipped with the world's first automatic reloading device (in another version - two 40-charge packages, guides on one platform).
130-mm multiple launch rocket system Type 75 performs a single launch
In the 70s in Italy, a series of MLRS of 70-mm and 122-mm FIROS caliber was created, in Spain - Teruel with a caliber of 140 mm, with anti-aircraft weapons.
Since the early 1980s, South Africa has produced a 127-mm 24-barreled MLRS Valkiri Mk 1.22 ("Valkyrie"), specially designed for the South African theater of operations, as well as the Mk 1.5 close-range MLRS.
Not distinguished by seemingly developed engineering thought, Brazil created in 1983 the Astros-2 MLRS, which has a number of very interesting technical solutions and is capable of firing five types of missiles of different calibers - from 127 to 300 mm. Brazil also produces MLRS SBAT - a cheap launcher for firing aviation NURS.
In Israel, in 1984, the LAR-160Yu MLRS was put into service on the chassis of the French AMX-13 light tank with two packages of 18 guides.
The former Yugoslavia produced a number of MLRSs - the heavy 262-mm M-87 Orkan, the 128-mm M-77 Oganj with 32 guides and an automatic reloading system (similar to the RM-70), as well as the light MLRS Plamen, a licensed copy of the Chinese Type 63. Although their production has been discontinued, they are in service and were actively used in the Yugoslav conflict of the 90s, showing good results.
MLRS - heavy 262 mm M-87 Orkan
The DPRK quickly copied (simplified) the Soviet "Uragan" complex, creating a 240-mm MLRS "Type 1985/89". And, as is customary in this country, she began selling it to everyone who could pay, and then she sold the license to her long-term partner, Iran. There the complex was redesigned once again and received the name "Fajr". (By the way, the MLRS in Iran is produced by a company called Shahid Bagheri Industries - just like that, it's not a joke.) In addition, Iran produces MLRS Arash with 30 or 40 rails of 122 mm caliber, very similar to the Grad system.
Even Egypt since 1981 has developed the Sakr MLRS ("Falcon"), a 30-barrel pirate copy of the same "Grad"
Of the latter, the Indian 214-mm Pinaka multiple launch rocket system stands out, which is the result of many years of efforts by the Indian military-industrial complex to create its own production of MLRS. The system is designed to perform combat missions in specific Indian conditions, with an emphasis on difficult terrain and mountainous terrain, as well as based on the requirements of the fastest possible change of positions. Military tests began in February 1999, and in the summer of the same year, combat use took place - during the Indo-Pakistani conflict in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
WEAPONS OF PAST BATTLES
It must be said that many military theorists of our time consider MLRS to be a kind of dead-end type of weapons, whose heyday falls on the era when strategists were preparing for the Third World War. And in the current local conflicts, their power, as already mentioned, is greatly redundant. Moreover, in terms of cost and complexity, modern MLRS are close to operational-tactical missiles and require sufficiently trained personnel for their maintenance. For example, during the Arab-Israeli conflicts, even the Syrians, not to mention the Hezbollah militants, managed to miss the target when firing MLRS not only at Israeli troops, but even at city blocks.
However, although MLRS are not "gods of war", they are not going to retire either.
