The head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Reznikov announced the receipt of new MLRS from France Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov wrote that the Ukrainian Armed Forces received multiple rocket launchers LRU from France.
Paris promised to hand them over to Kiev in October in the amount of three pieces. LRU are actually copies of German MARS II installations that Ukraine has already received. Military experts agree: a small number of French vehicles will not significantly strengthen the Ukrainian rocket artillery. In addition, they have limited capabilities for use and have already been destroyed by Russian troops.
New French multiple launch rocket systems LRU have arrived in Ukraine. This was announced on Twitter by the country's Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov.
The head of the defense department did not specify exactly how many LRU systems Kiev received. It is possible that we are talking about only one car. The delivery of these MLRS by Paris became known in October. Initially, the Europeans promised to transfer to the Armed Forces of Ukraine three installations that had previously been in service with the French army. It was also not reported whether ammunition for them would be supplied along with the systems.
What is LRU
Lance-Roquettes Unitaire (LRU) is an upgraded "European" version of the American M270 MLRS jet system. This is a tracked MLRS of the NATO sample. By October, Kiev had already received from foreign partners about a dozen installations of the MLRS family of various modifications.
Since the 1980s, France has received about 60 MLRS M270 MLRS of the first modification for its ground forces, which were operated until the early 2000s. They were only capable of firing unguided ammunition. Then, with the participation of Germany, Italy and France, it was decided to modernize the system. In 2011, Paris ordered the upgrade of 13 existing M270 to LRU. The remaining old MLRS were sent for storage. In Germany, the upgraded machines were named MARS II, and the Italian ones - MLRS-I. MARS II has already been delivered to Ukraine, the differences between them, the Italian version and the LRU are minimal.
LRU has a new fire control system developed by Munich-based Airbus Defense and Space. This system allows you to fire M31, M31A1, M32, AT2 and 110 mm missiles, but does not allow the use of cluster munitions - unlike the United States, European countries have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibiting the use, accumulation and transfer of projectiles of this type. According to information from open sources, the cost of one installation is approximately $ 730 thousand.
Conceptually, the LRU differs little from its predecessor of the 1980s model. It is still a tracked chassis with high cross-country capability, which houses a launcher with two containers. Instead of the old hydraulic guidance drives, modern electric ones have appeared. The basic corrected projectiles of the M31 family have a flight range of at least 80 km and high accuracy thanks to the satellite navigation system. They all have a high-explosive fragmentation warhead weighing 91 kg.
The calculation of the combat vehicle is three people. It allows you to fire a salvo every 48 seconds. The declared area of the lesion is 25 thousand square meters. The main task of the LRU as a rocket artillery is to defeat enemy manpower, infrastructure of stationary objects and tank groups.
Will the new RZSO help Kiev
According to Military Review, the transfer of French MLRS to Kiev will not significantly strengthen its own rocket artillery. The three vehicles in question will allow you to create only one firing platoon. In the past months, the APU has already received about a dozen systems of the same type, some of which, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, were destroyed. New installations from France will increase Ukraine's reserves of such MLRS by only 20-30%.
The main limitation of the use of LRU is the inability to use cluster munitions, which, for example, allow remote mining of a vast territory (as happened in Donetsk with PFM-1 petal mines - the APU uses Grad and Hurricane rocket systems to deliver cassettes with them).
In addition, despite the sufficiently high accuracy of LRU ammunition, almost all missiles of this family, which were previously launched by Ukrainian troops, were successfully destroyed by Russian air defense systems. In addition, when shooting, the LRU unmasks itself.
Experts of the Military Review concluded that France is transferring systems with limited capabilities to Ukraine, analogues of which have previously been successfully destroyed by Russian troops. And a small number of them - three pieces - will not significantly change the picture on the contact line.
Mikhail Kotlyar
