October 22,2008:
Britain moved some U.S. made M270 MLRS (Multiple-Launch Rocket
System) to Afghanistan in 2007. Using the GPS guided version of the 227mm
rockets, the British have fired over 150 times, with stunning accuracy. The 70
kilometers range, 200 pound rockets, are much in demand by British troops (who
call the system the "70 kilometer sniper"). The tracked MLRS carrier
if often on alert (ready to fire in minutes) for up to two days at a time, to
provide instant firepower for British troops out fighting the Taliban.
What makes
the GMLRS most useful is not just its accuracy, which is about the same as air
force JDAM GPS guided smart bombs, but because the 200 pound GMLRS warhead
produces a smaller bang than the smallest JDAM (500 pounds). When it comes to
urban fighting, smaller is better. Less collateral damage, and your troops can
be closer to the target when the explosion occurs. In Iraq, the 200 pound GMLRS
warhead is just the right size for your average Iraqi building. The structure,
and the bad guys within, are destroyed, and adjacent structures suffer minimal,
or no, damage. For that reason, even some Iraqi politicians have come out in
praise of the GMLRS. In Afghanistan, most of the fighting is outside urban
areas, but even there, in many cases the bad guys are in one building of a
compound, while civilians are in
another. In such cases, the GMLRS could take out one building, without
destroying the other.
The U.S. Army
believes that GMLRS will remain the most useful smart weapon, even with the introduction
of the hundred pound 155mm GPS guided Excalibur artillery shell, and the U.S.
Air Force's 250 pound JDAM (the SDB, or small diameter bomb). Both of these
weapons pack a smaller punch than the GMLRS, and that may be a drawback in some
situations. Ground troops are certain that the GMLRS warhead is just right, at
least in most cases.
In order to
provide fire support for widely dispersed British troops, MLRS vehicles often
have to position themselves in areas crawling with Taliban gunmen. The vehicles
sometimes come under fire. To help deal with that, a modified version of the
MLRS vehicle has been introduced. This one has armor added for protection
against bullets and RPGs. The 7.62mm machine-gun mounted on the top of the cab
has thermal imagers, for spotting gunmen at night or during the dust storms
common to the area. These upgraded vehicles appeared in Afghanistan earlier
this year.
Each
tracked, 25 ton, MLRS vehicle carries twelve rockets and a crew of three. About
a thousand MLRS vehicles have been built, and the system is in use by fifteen
countries. Britain has four MLRS vehicles in Afghanistan, which is sufficient
to cover all the areas where British troops are operating in Helmand
province.