Katyusha Rocket Launcher

Katyusha multiple rocket launchers are a type of rocket artillery first built and operated by the Soviet Union in World War II. Multiple rocket launchers such as these bring a destructive quantity of explosives to an objective area more rapidly than usual artillery, but with lower accurateness and require a longer time to reload. They are frail compared to artillery guns, but are economical and easy to construct. Katyushas of World War II, the first self-propelled artillery mass-produced by the Soviet Union, were mounted on trucks. This mobility gave the Katyusha another benefit: being able to deliver a large blow all at once, and then move before being located and attacked with counter-battery fire.

Katyusha weapons of World War II included the BM-13 launcher, light BM-8, and heavy BM-31. Today, the nickname is also applied to newer truck-mounted Soviet (and not only Soviet) multiple rocket launchers—particularly the regular BM-21—and its derivatives.

Originally, uneasiness for privacy kept their military alias from being known by the soldiers who operated them. They were called by code names such as Kostikov guns and finally classed as Guards Mortars. The name BM-13 was only permissible into secret documents in 1942, and remained confidential until after the war. Since they were marked with the letter K Red Army troops adopted a name from Mikhail Isakovsky’s popular wartime song, “Katyusha”, about a girl longing for her absent beloved, who has gone away on military service.

Katyusha rocket launchers were mounted on many platforms during World War II, including on trucks, artillery tractors, tanks, and armored trains, as well as on naval and riverine vessels as assault support weapons, Soviet engineers also mounted single Katyusha rockets on lengths of railway track to serve in urban combat.

The design was comparatively uncomplicated, consisting of racks of parallel rails on which rockets were mounted, with a folding frame to raise the rails to launch spot. Each truck had between 14 and 48 launchers. The M-13 rocket of the BM-13 system was 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) long, 13.2 cm (5.2 in) in diameter and weighed 42 kg (93 lb).

The weapon is less precise than predictable artillery guns, but is particularly effectual in dissemination bombardment, and was mainly feared by German soldiers. A battery of four BM-13 launchers could fire a salvo in 7–10 seconds that delivered 4.35 tons of high explosives over a 400,000-square-metre impact zone, making its power roughly equal to that of 72 gun batteries. With a capable crew, the launchers could reorganize to a new spot soon after firing, denying the enemy the chance for counter battery fire. Katyusha batteries were often massed in very large numbers to create a shock effect on enemy forces. The weapon’s drawback was the long time it took to reload a launcher, in comparison to predictable guns which could sustain a continuous low rate of fire. The characteristic howling noise of the rocket launching frightened the German troops and could be used for psychosomatic warfare. The rocket’s devastating devastation also helped to lower the confidence of the German army.

Katyusha-like launchers were sold abroad to Afghanistan, Angola, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, East Germany, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Poland, Syria, and Vietnam. They were also built in Czechoslovakia, the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, and Iran.

Proper Katyushas (BM-13s) also saw battle in the Korean War, used by the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army against the South and United Nations forces. Soviet BM-13s were known to have been imported to China before the Sino-Soviet split and were equipped in the People’s Liberation Army.

Israel captured BM-24 MRLs during the Six-Day War (1967), used them in two battalions during the Yom Kippur War (1973) and the 1982 Lebanon War, and later developed the MAR-240 launcher for the same rockets, based on a Sherman tank chassis.

During the 2006 Lebanon War, Hezbollah fired between 3,970 and 4,228 rockets, from light truck-mounts and single-rail man-portable launchers. About 95% of these were 122 mm (4.8 in) Syrian-manufactured M-21OF type artillery rockets which carried warheads up to 30 kg (66 lb) and had a range of 20 km, perhaps up to 30 km (19 mi). Hamas has launched 122-mmGrad-type Katyusha rockets from the Gaza Strip against several cities in Israel, although they are not reported to have truck-mounted launchers. Although Katyusha originally referred to the mobile launcher, today the rockets are often referred to as Katyushas.

Some allege that the CIA bought Katyushas from the Egyptian military and supplied them to the Mujahideen (via Pakistan’s ISI) during the Soviet Afghan war.

It was also accounted that BM-21 launchers were used against American forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. They have also been used in the Afghanistan and Iraq insurgencies. In Iraq, according to Associated Press and Agence France-Presse reports, Katyusha-like rockets were fired at the Green Zone late March 2008.

Also, several countries have sustained to construct and maneuver Katyusha-like systems well into the 21st century, as for example the Teruel MRL of the Spanish Army. In February 2013, the Defense Ministry of Yemen reported seizing an Iranian ship, and that the ship’s cargo included with other weapons Katyusha rockets.

Specifications

Type: Rocket Artillery
Place of origin: Soviet Union
In service: 1939–present
Variants: BM-13, BM-8, BM-31, BM-14, BM-21, BM-24, BM-25, BM-27, BM-30