Weapons of rocket volleys in the first thousand years
Artillery has always been an important means of achieving victory over the enemy. The appearance of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) has moved the armed confrontation to a completely different level, which is due to a number of advantages. The most important of them are:
– high fire density due to the presence of multi–barrel launchers (PU) with rapid loading devices, and in modern and promising systems - high shooting accuracy due to reduced dispersion of rockets (RS) in flight and the use of flight trajectory correction and guidance systems (homing);
– large-caliber MLRS in terms of combat potential are close to operational-tactical missile systems with non-nuclear warheads (warheads);
– the high mobility of MLRS complexes ensures their rapid massing in the directions of the main strike and allows you to radically reduce the deployment time in the firing position and the possibility of a quick exit from the enemy's retaliatory strike;
– the appearance of different types of RS, including equipped with mines for remote mining of the territory, conventional cluster warheads – to defeat manpower, artillery positions and enemy warehouses, or cluster warheads with homing combat elements to defeat armored vehicles, etc.;
– simplicity of design, combat use and military operation, coupled with a small number of combat crews (two or three people).
MLRS, in comparison with traditional barrel artillery, are able to solve the same firing tasks with greater efficiency and efficiency, and even at lower cost, having also an advantage in firing range.
The effectiveness of the impact of large and medium-caliber RS on group targets (accumulations of manpower and equipment) and area targets (ammunition depots, fuel, etc.), military bases and transport hubs is close to the effectiveness of low-power tactical nuclear weapons, favorably differing in the absence of radioactive contamination of the area.
FROM CHINESE "LIGHTERS"
The first prototypes of multi-barrel MLRS appeared in the Chinese Song Empire (960-1279). The Chinese military actively used primitive rockets as incendiary means during the siege of cities. And they also invented portable "mini-MLRS": baskets in which arrows equipped with powder charges were placed. The energy of gunpowder gave the arrows acceleration, providing a long range and good killing power. Such a variant of the "miracle weapon" is depicted in the Chinese treatise "Wujing zongyao" ("Collection of the most important military methods"), published in 1044.
In the same treatise, for the first time in the history of military literature, a recipe for gunpowder is given, and of three types: for bombs thrown with a catapult; for an incendiary bomb with hooks against wooden buildings; for a chemical bomb that releases toxic substances during gorenje.
The treatise also contains a description of a flamethrower, which was a brass tank with a flammable liquid, to which a metal pipe was attached. Through the pipe, with the help of a pump, fuel was supplied to the outside, where it ignited from a red-hot metal rod.
In the XIII century, rockets appeared among the Arabs (as incendiary weapons) and in Europe (where they were initially used more for fireworks). And in the XV century, the use of missiles for military purposes was recorded in Russia.
But an even more realistic candidate for MLRS prototypes is the Korean anti–personnel powder weapon hwachha ("fire wagon"). A primitive launcher (PU) with sockets into which up to 100 missiles with arrows or up to 200 missiles with small bombs were inserted was installed on a two-wheeled cart. There is a connection with the Chinese portable "mini-MLRS". But this is a more mobile option, which seemed to have a longer firing range (up to 450 m) and also allowed throwing small bombs.
It is believed that this weapon appeared in 1409. Its first combat use occurred in a battle with the Mongols – a group of 40 khvachkh put to flight a five thousand army. Khvachhi was also used in battles with the Japanese in 1592-1598. This model of armament showed itself especially vividly during the battle at the Hengju Fortress. Its garrison numbered 3.4 thousand people and had 40 khvachh, which helped to successfully repel the attack of the ten thousandth Japanese army.
Later, missiles of various designs were used with varying success by the British and Russian military.
Rockets designed by Colonel of the British Army Sir William Congreve were used by the British navy during the shelling of Boulogne on November 8, 1806 and Copenhagen on the night of September 4, 1807, as well as in a number of other operations. Later, in the "Battle of the peoples" at Leipzig (1813), Congreve commanded one of the two army rocket brigades he formed. And in 1814 he opened the first rocket factory in Europe.
Russian rocket weapons owe their formation to the scientist and inventor Lieutenant General Konstantin Ivanovich Konstantinov. Through his efforts, two factories for the production of combat missiles were built in Russia in the middle of the XIX century, and the firing range of a number of their modifications was brought to 4 km.
But the development of missile weapons since the middle of the XIX century was replaced by its decline. The rapid development of barrel rifled artillery left no room for imperfect combat missiles in the army and Navy.
KATYUSHA ENTER THE BATTLE
The revival of rocket artillery occurred in the first half of the twentieth century. Already in the First World War, the French army used anti–aircraft MLRS to protect rear facilities - they conducted a barrage against aircraft.
However, it did not go further. "Although such installations could be used in field artillery, such attempts are unknown, which can be explained by the lack of a conscious need for field MLRS," Oleg Vorotnikov points out in the work "Development of field multiple rocket launchers in the twentieth century." So the qualitative and quantitative leap in the development of MLRS occurred already in the Second World War. And the Soviet Union turned out to be the most prepared in this regard.
Based on the RS-82 (82 mm) and PC-132 (132 mm) aviation rockets adopted by the Air Force in 1937-1938, their army variants M-8 and M-13 were created. Moreover, the M-13 compared to the RS-132 had better accuracy, increased to 8.5 km (instead of 6 km) firing range and a warhead of greater mass. The firing range of the M-8 was also increased (up to 5.5 km). It was for the combat use of these shells that the world's first serial MLRS – BM-8 (RS M-8) and BM-13 (RS M-13) were created.
During the war, these RS were repeatedly modified in order to increase the firing range, increase the power of the warhead and the accuracy of shells. In June 1942, RS with a warhead mass of about 1.5 and 2.5 times more than that of the M-13 were put into service. They received the designation M-20 and M-30 and had a firing range of 5 km and 2.8 km. In April 1944, the troops received a PC with a accuracy almost twice as good as that of the M-13 (M-13UK – improved accuracy). And in October 1944, the M-13DD (long-range) appeared, whose firing range reached 11.8 km.
Guide packages were installed on various chassis, including light tanks and the STZ-5-NATI tractor, as well as on ships. And towards the end of the war, the BM-31–12 MLRS entered service with a package of cellular-type guides and a more powerful 300-mm RS M-31 with a high-explosive warhead weighing 52.4 kg.
In total, the active army at the end of the war had 40 separate divisions (38 M-13 and two M-8), 115 regiments (96 M-13 and 19 M-8), 40 separate brigades (27 M-31 and 13 M-31–12) and seven divisions of rocket artillery. That is, in total, 519 divisions!
In total, from July 1941 to December 1944, 10114 self-propelled PU were produced, including 2086 vehicles of the BM-8 family, 6844 BM-13 and 1184 BM-31–12. And also more than 12.75 million PCs of all types, of which about 7.5 million were spent in battles.
GERMAN ROCKET-PROPELLED MORTARS
The enemy also actively used MLRS. The Russian reader is well aware of the German towed rocket-propelled mortars "Nebelwerfer" (Nebelwerfer, "rocket launcher for throwing smoke charges"), which we nicknamed "Vanyushami", and in the Anglo–American troops - Screaming Mimi ("screaming Minnie").
They were created in the 1930s for firing smoke bombs and chemical shells, but were used mainly with high-explosive turbojet mines. Moreover, "Nebelverfer" is the name of a whole family of mortars and MLRS, which included a dozen samples with a caliber from 100 to 320 mm (actually MLRS – from 150 to 320 mm), including self–propelled on different chassis. These vehicles were in service with the Wehrmacht and SS troops.
The first MLRS of this family, the six-barreled 150 mm Nebelverfer 41 (15cm NbW 41), entered service with the Wehrmacht in 1940. They used 150-mm high-explosive fragmentation ammunition, the maximum firing range was about 6.8 km, but for a number of reasons the instruction required firing no further than 3 km. The time of a full salvo of the installation was 5 seconds. In total, 5283 or 5769 NbW 41 installations were released, according to various sources.
In April 1943, a self–propelled version of the Panzerwerfer 42 (15cm Panzerwerfer 42 auf Selbstfahrlafette Sd.Kfz.4/1 - PzWrf 42) entered service. This is a ten–barrel MLRS - two rotary five-barrel launch blocks with a total ammunition of 20 missiles were installed on the Sd.Kfz.4/1 conveyor ("special machine 4/1"), created on the chassis of a semi-tracked truck from Opel. Until March 1944, 296 such MLRS were produced, plus 251 Munitionskraftwagen Sd.Kfc.4 ammunition transport vehicles on the same chassis (according to other sources, 300 and 289 vehicles were produced, respectively).
In 1944, the troops received another MLRS of the Panzerwerfer 42 family on a half-track chassis of a three-ton sWS tractor, which received the designation 15cm Panzerwerfer 42 auf sWS. It also had a ten-barrel PU, but of a single-pack type, and the ammunition carried increased to 50 RS. In addition, MLRS of the same family were produced on the basis of the French semi–tracked tractor SOMUA MCG/MCL - they had a ten-barrel package and received the designation 15cm Panzerwerfer 42 auf m.gep Zgkw.
Shortly before the attack on the USSR, the Wehrmacht received a more powerful towed MLRS of the Nebelwerfer 41 type (28/32cm Nebelwerfer 41), which used 280 mm high-explosive fragmentation ammunition and 320 mm incendiary ammunition (filled with oil). But the firing range at the same time decreased to 2.2 km. Shooting could be carried out both from towed PU, and from metal or wooden prefabricated stationary frame-type PU, on which RS closures were installed, which played the role of guides. Often the shooting was carried out immediately from the closures from a specially dug firing position.
The combat crew is preparing the Haimars multiple launch rocket system for use. Photos from the website www.dvidshub.net
Later, a self–propelled version of the MLRS was also created – on the chassis of a semi-tracked apc Sd.Kfz.251, on which three RS were hung from each side in cappers (two on command vehicles). Such a system received the designation schwere Wurfrahmen 40 or sWu.R. 40. Captured semi–tracked (mainly French, but there were also American M3 – two RS on board) and other combat vehicles (for example, French tankette "Chenet" - two RS on board or four RS in the rear, infantry tank H35 – two pcs on board).
In the troops, sWu.R. 40 received the nickname "Heulende Kuh" ("roaring cow"), or "Stuka-zu-Fuß" ("infantry thing"). During the war years, 345 such MLRS were produced, and with installations sW.G. 40 and sW.G. 41 about 700, and to them at least 600 thousand RS.
Starting in 1943, part of the MLRS was converted to new 300-mm RS – they were designated "Nebelverfer" 42 (30cm NbW 42). The latter was originally intended to replace the Nebelverfer 41 type MLRS with 280-mm and 320-mm RS, which had insufficient range. The new RS (30cm Wurfkorper (Wurfgranate) Spreng – 30cm WK.Spr.42) had not only a longer flight range, but also left behind a less noticeable "tail", reducing the probability of detecting PU.
300-mm shells with a firing range of up to 4550 m could be used from their towed PU of the old ("Nebelverfer" 42) or new ("Raketenwerfer" 56 – 30cm Raketenwerfer 56 – on the carriage of a 50-mm anti-tank gun 5cm PaK 38) type or from PU for 320-mm RS of the early type – with additional guide inserts.
However, the German industry was already experiencing problems, and there were plenty of previously released MLRS in the troops. So both types of MLRS remained in service, although early-type installations were often converted into a new version (the package of guides was changed). By the end of the war, according to Joachim Engelmann and Horst Scheibert ("German Artillery 1934-1945"), 954 MLRS and no more than 200 thousand RS were produced.
A little earlier, in 1942, initially as a replacement, but in fact as an addition, the Wehrmacht adopted a 210-mm towed MLRS "Nebelverfer" 42 (21cm NbW 42), which ideologically repeated a similar towed six-barreled MLRS type "Nebelverfer" 41 (even on the same carriage), but had five barrels.
It included only high-explosive fragmentation RS of improved design (21cm Wurfgranate 42), which could be equipped with immediate or delayed-action fuses and had a longer firing range (7850 m). From the PU, with the help of embedded guides, it was possible to fire with old 150-mm RS.
And to repel the raids of heavy Anglo-American bombers for the Luftwaffe, they made an air-based version of the RS (Werfer-Granite 21 (Wfr. Gr. 21) or also Bordrakete 21 (BR 21). In total, according to Engelman and Scheibert, 2626 MLRS and more than 400 thousand RS were issued.
Of particular note is the self-propelled 80-mm MLRS "Raketen-Vielfachwerfer" (Raketen-Vielfachwerfer, "multi-barrel special installation"), which actually used copied Soviet 82-mm RS M-8. This MLRS was nicknamed "Himmler-Orgel" – "Himmler's organ", because the idea to copy the Soviet RS belonged, as it is believed, to the SS leadership, and these systems were received by the SS troops.
However, the enemy failed to recreate the recipe for smokeless nitroglycerin powder for PC checkers – they had to make their own PC (8cm Wurfgranate Spreng) or use captured Soviet M-8.
There were two variants of this MLRS: with 24 guides on the chassis of the Sd.Kfz.4/1 special transport, the French semi-tracked tractor SOMUA MCG/MCL (8cm R-Vielfachwerfer auf m.ger.Zgkw S303 (f) or other similar machines, or with 48 guides on the chassis of the French medium tank SOMUA S35 (the package of guides was put instead of the tower).
AMERICANS AND BRITS
The MLRS and the armies of the Anglo-American allies were used. So, in the United States during the war, several 114-mm (4.5 inches) RS were developed and launched into a series, the most massive of which was the M8, which had a mass of 7.6 kg and a length of 911 mm. They entered service with both assault aviation and army units, where they were used from multi-barreled PU placed on tanks, armored personnel carriers, trucks and SUVs. And also in the Navy, where ships of various classes were armed with them, using them mainly for fire support during amphibious operations.
The most famous MLRS on the chassis of the medium tank M4 "Sherman", which received the designation T34 "Calliope", in similarity to a musical instrument – a steam organ-calliope. It had a package of 60 tubular guides for the RS M8, which was installed on the tank turret in three groups: 36 drop guides in the upper package and two drop packages of 12 guides (packages were not dropped on the MLRS based on the M4A1 tank). There were also other options: T34E1 – instead of 12-tubular, there were 14-tubular packages; T34E2 – 60 guides for firing RS of 183 mm (7.2 inches) caliber.
The Naval Forces and the US Marine Corps actively used shipboard MLRS, which used modified 114-mm BBR – from Beach Barrage Rocket ("rocket projectile for firing coastal fortifications"). The RS had a mass of 13 kg and a length of 760 mm, and a 6.5-kg powder charge provided a maximum projectile speed of 233 m / s and a firing range of up to 1 km.
At the same time, the RS, whose warhead had 2.9 kg of trinitrotoluene, was comparable in destructive effect to a 105-mm howitzer high-explosive shell. The shooting was carried out from the ship's cellular-type PU installed on the upper deck. In total, only for the Navy and Marines during the war years, more than 1.6 million 114 mm caliber RS were produced.
During the war, the 114-mm Rs was upgraded to improve accuracy and accuracy of fire and received the designation M16. These RS were used only in land units, which were armed with towed MLRS T66 with a package of 24 aluminum tubular guides mounted on a two-wheeled carriage with sliding frames. Due to the relatively small mass (556 kg without shells), the MLRS could be transported by light all-terrain vehicles.
In 1943, the US Armed Forces received a more powerful 182-mm RS M17 for the destruction of long-term enemy defenses. It had a mass of 27.5 kg, a length of 880 mm, a speed of 210 m / s and a firing range of about 3.2 km. A modified version of this M25-type PC was also used. For firing the RS M17 on the basis of the Sherman tank, the T40 MLRS (T40/M17 WhizBang) was designed, ideologically similar to the T34, with a package of 20 guides closed with armored plates. But it was not widely used in battles (about 30 such MLRS were collected in total).
The British began work on the subject of combat missiles in the late 1930s, and the priority was to create a RS for air defense. The first such RS and launcher (single-shot) were adopted in 1939. Three-inch RS were also used in aviation, but already against ground and surface targets.
It was only during the war in London that they realized the need to create a system of fire support for landing troops and army units with a high density of fire on the basis of the RS. They implemented the idea in a peculiar way: they combined the rocket engine of a three-inch (76 mm) RP-3 type aircraft RS (Rocket Projectile 3 inch, "three-inch rocket projectile") and the warhead of a 127-mm artillery shell, which had a decent (13 kg) mass and great power. The increase in the accuracy of the RS was ensured by their "twisting" when starting from the screw guides.
The ship's version of such MLRS received the designation Mattress ("Mattress" or "Mattress"). The land towed version, which had a package of 30, and then 24 and even 16 tubular guides, was called Land Mattress ("land mattress").
The firing range of the army variant reached 7225 m . It was most actively used in operations to force the Rhine and Scheldt rivers, where in six hours British and Canadian troops released more than a thousand RS.
FROM OBLIVION TO REBIRTH
The end of the Second World War led to the branching of the Western and Eastern (or rather Soviet) philosophy of the development of MLRS with uncontrolled RS.
From the late 1940s to the 1960s, the leading Western countries gave priority attention, on the one hand, to the development of guided missile weapons (cruise, ballistic) and type of basing (aviation, land and sea). And on the other hand, the improvement of classical barrel artillery, including the development of low–power nuclear munitions for it, while actually abandoning the direction of MLRS with uncontrolled RS.
In the USSR, the situation was different. Priority was also given to the work on the creation of guided missile weapons and nuclear ammunition. But work on unguided jet weapons was carried out no less actively – in the direction of improving both RS and PU, including self-propelled MLRS.
The culmination was the appearance of a revolutionary weapons complex – an army 122-mm MLRS type 9K51 "Grad" with a BM-21 combat vehicle, which had a package of 40 tubular guides and ensured the defeat of targets at a range of up to 20 km (the official name is the M–21 field jet system).
Developed by order of the State Committee for Defense Technology on February 24, 1959 by specialists of Tula Research Institute-147 (now JSC NPO Ganichev Alloy as part of Rostec Group) with the active participation of cooperative enterprises (SKB-203 – now JSC NPP Start named after Yaskin; Research Institute-6 – today SSC RF FSUE "Central Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics"; NITI – today JSC "Snegirev Threads"; NIHTI – now FSUE "Federal Center for Dual Technologies "Soyuz"; Central Research Institute-173 – today JSC "Central Research Institute of Automation and Hydraulics"), it was adopted in 1963.
Serial production of the combat vehicle was organized at the Perm plant named after. Lenin (now PJSC "Motovilikhinsky Plants"), and the production of launchers – at the Kovrov Mechanical Plant (now part of Rosatom).
According to the two–volume "Defense Enterprises of the USSR and Russia" (2010), 6536 Grad combat vehicles were delivered to the USSR Armed Forces and at least 646 vehicles were delivered abroad. More than 3 million shells were fired.
The Grad MLRS, which was distinguished by the simplicity of production and operation, had excellent technical characteristics and a huge modernization potential, made it possible to make a breakthrough in the field of weapons of this class.
In the NATO bloc, the new weapon system was evaluated, and already in 1969, the German Armed Forces received a 110-mm LARS-type MLRS (Light Artillery Rocket System) with a firing range of 14 km. Magirus-Deutz trucks (178D15A – a variant of LARS 1) or MAN (LARS 2) were used as chassis, on which two packages of 18 guides were installed. For a long time they were the only MLRS in the armies of NATO countries and were withdrawn from service only in 1998.
However, in 1976, the USSR Armed Forces received a new MLRS – a more powerful and long-range 220-mm 9K57 "Hurricane" system, created by a cooperation of enterprises led by Tula "Alloy" and had a firing range of 35 km. The Soviet Army's rocket artillery was becoming a force capable of solving a wide range of tasks.
And after the appearance of the 300-mm MLRS type 9K58 "Smerch" in the late 1980s, it came even closer in capabilities to tactical nuclear weapons. And NATO could not ignore these events.
The Americans created a self-propelled MLRS type M270 MLRS, adopted by the US Armed Forces in 1981. Later, she joined the armies of other NATO countries and non-aligned allies of the United States. Until 2003, about 1.3 thousand combat vehicles produced in the USA and Europe, and more than 700 thousand ammunition of various types to them were handed over to customers.
The name of this system is MLRS (from Multiple Launch Rocket System, which means "multiple launch rocket system") it has become a household name.
Later, a light wheeled MLRS of the HIMARS type was created on its base, with the help of which the shelling of the territory of Donbass is being conducted today. We will tell you more about them in the future.
Vladimir Shcherbakov
Deputy Executive Editor of HBO
Vladimir Leonidovich Shcherbakov is a military expert, historian, and writer.