Installation "Smerch" - the successor of the legendary "Katyusha"

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

When in 1983 the United States adopted the MLRS MLRS, which in its characteristics was comparable to the Soviet Uragan system used back in 1975, NATO countries decided that they had caught up with the Soviet Union in multiple launch rocket systems. However, a surprise awaited them. Four years later, in 1987, the Smerch installation entered service with the rocket artillery regiments of the Soviet Army.

History of Creation

In the task of developing a new rocket system, in addition to the traditional tasks of destroying equipment, weapons, manpower, airfields and headquarters, it was also tasked with the destruction of tactical missiles. To do this, it was necessary to increase the accuracy and range of fire. The development of such a system was undertaken by the design bureau of the Tula State Research and Production Enterprise "Splav", which designed many rocket launchers in Russia. Alexander Nikitovich Ganichev became the general designer, and after his death -Denezhkin Gennady Alekseevich.

Design and features

At the very beginning of the work, the designers faced one significant problem. All rocket launchers in Russia and the world, starting with the legendary Katyushas, lost their main advantage as the firing range increased - they could not hit the target in salvo, the large dispersion of rockets affected. To eliminate this shortcoming, for the first time in the world, a flight correction of the mentioned ammunition was applied in pitch and yaw angles. As a result of using a unique control system, the hit accuracy was two times higher, and the accuracy was three times higher than that of similar foreign multiple rocket launchers. In addition, the projectile uses a more advanced solid propellant propulsion engine. All these innovations allow us to consider that the Smerch installation is a weapon of a fundamentally new level, which has no analogues in terms of range and striking ability of fire, the destruction of armored vehicles and manpower of a potential enemy.

Ammunition

RZSO "Smerch" - installation of volley fire. It has 12 launch guide tubes, respectively, 12 rockets of various types are included in the ammunition load. Let's consider some of them. The 9M55K projectile has a warhead with fragmentation elements. Designed to destroy unarmored vehicles and manpower in open areas. The 9M55K1 projectile contains self-aiming submunitions. Designed to destroy armored vehicles from above andtanks. Rockets 9M55K3 and K4 are used for anti-personnel and anti-tank mining, respectively. The head part of the 9M55K5 is equipped with 646 cumulative fragmentation submunitions. They penetrate 120 mm of homogeneous armor and are most effective against motorized infantry moving in infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers. The 9M55F rocket contains a detachable high-explosive fragmentation warhead. It destroys manpower, communication centers, headquarters, military-industrial facilities. The most destructive projectile for the Smerch is the 9M55S, equipped with a thermobaric warhead (the so-called volume explosion ammunition, or vacuum bomb). The materials of state tests, where the effectiveness of its use was determined, are classified.

At present, based on the above ammunition, new rockets with an increased firing range of 90 kilometers have been developed. One more non-standard warhead should be noted. This is a missile with an unmanned aerial vehicle, which is designed to observe the enemy and conduct reconnaissance for half an hour, and also has a high degree of invulnerability due to its small size.

Composition of the MLRS complex

The Smerch volley launcher consists of a 9A52 combat vehicle based on a four-axle high-cross-country chassis of the MAZ-543 vehicle. A package of 12 tubular guides is mounted on it, there are radio communications, and the equipment of the fire control system is also located. To load the launcher is usedtransport-loading vehicle with the index 9T234, also on the MAZ-543 chassis. The export version of the MLRS provides, at the request of the customer, the replacement of the car "Tatra-816". This is due to the fact that in some countries, for example in India, there is a well-developed service of this company. To ensure the effective combat use of the installation, the following are used: the AUO complex (Automatic fire control) 9S729M1 "Slepok-1" on the KamAZ-43114 chassis ("Tatra-T815"); vehicle for topographic survey (index 1T12-2M, GAZ-66); meteorological direction-finding complex 1B44 "Ulybka" ("Ural-43203").

Countries armed with MLRS

By the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, three regiments of rocket artillery were armed with the Smerch installation. The 336th regiment remained in Belarus after 1991, the 337th in Russia, and the 371st in Ukraine. In addition to the above states, installations are in service in Azerbaijan, Algeria, Venezuela, Georgia, India, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Peru and Turkmenistan. Part of the combat vehicles in these countries were supplied directly by Rosoboronexport, and some were sold from Soviet stocks by Ukraine and Belarus. China manufactures Smerch rocket launchers under license on its own chassis.

Promising developments

New rocket launchers are being developed in modern Russia. A photo of one of them is presented to your attention. This is the Kama installation on the new KamAZ-6350 chassis with 6 guides instead of 12, which was first demonstrated at the MAKS-2007 aerospace show. The development of a new RZSO is also ongoing.generations of "Tornado", which will soon take up combat duty both in the Russian army and in the armed forces of other states.