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Subject:
Russian MRLs
MLRSman
11/27/2001 8:02:04 PM
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| Typical 'Russians are backward' bias in the latest article
"While the Russians have been using rocket launchers for over 60 years, they never got around to enhancing their effectiveness with a lot of technology"
The 300mm Smerch MRL is pretty advanced. The standard Smerch rocket has a maximum range of 70km (far more than standard MLRS), it is fitted with either a warhead containing 72 HEF sub munitions or a HEF separable unitary warhead. It can also be fitted with a warhead containing five Bazalt MOTIV-3F anti-armor sub munitions. These ?smart? sub munitions have dual-color infrared sensors for terminal guidance and kinetic energy fragment warheads, which are said to be able to penetrate 70mm of armor at an angle of 30 degrees to the normal.
A new projectile has been developed, which uses a high-energy composite propellant, which will give an increased range of 90km, and a new warhead that scatters 25 anti-tank mines.
It has been reported that a miniature aerial vehicle, R-90, containing a stabilized camera is being developed which could be fired from the Smerch launcher, enabling real-time battlefield surveillance data to be relayed to the Smerch commander. The aerial vehicle, which uses GPS (Global Positioning System), has the same 70km range as the standard rocket and can transmit data for up to 30 minutes.
This is just a sample of the features of Russian MRLs, and most of these features are also available to the BM-21 Grad. A new 40km range rocket for the Grad has been introduced, as well as a variety of new warheads: cluster warhead carrying anti-tank mines, a cluster warhead with antipersonnel mines, a smoke-generating warhead, a jammer payload operating in the HF and VHF bands, an air-target simulator, and anti-armor self-guided sub munitions. The control system of the Grad has been automated, including the addition of satellite aided navigation. |
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