by Tom Clancy
The MLRS launch vehicle is based on the M993 tracked carrier produced by FMC Corporation of San Jose, California. The M993 uses technology and components (such as suspension and power train) from the Bradley program, and has very similar driving and handling characteristics to the Bradley. The engine, a 500-horsepower Cummins V-8 diesel, drives a four-speed (three forward, one reverse) automatic transmission. The power train provides enough power to move the MLRS across the battlefield at a top speed of over 40 mph/64 kph. One interesting feature of the suspension is that the hubs are equipped with special locks (called suspension lockouts), so that the vehicle is more stable during rocket/missile launches.
The MLRS has the same ability to cross terrain as the other U.S. Army vehicles of its generation, and is air-transportable by a number of U.S. airlift aircraft. Unlike the Bradley, the armored crew compartment (bullet-proof against small-arms fire and artillery/mortar fragments) is in a cab at the front of the vehicle. The crew cab has room for three soldiers: typically a driver, gunner, and section chief. All crew members are cross-trained, and two soldiers can operate the system easily.
MLRS showing the rocket launcher at maximum elevation. The twelve rocket tubes are clearly visible in this view.
FMC CORPORATION
The cab is equipped with an overpressure system to provide filtered breathable air during firing. And the crew remains in the cab for all firing operations. The crew cab is also equipped with a set of armored louvers to protect the windshield from being scorched by the rocket exhaust, or harmed by debris kicked up by the rocket blast. Inside, in addition to the driver’s-side controls, are a terminal to provide fire control and communications to the Battery Control System (BCS) artillery-control network and two of the SINCGARS radios for voice and data communications. BCS is tied into the TACFIRE control system, which works at the division/regiment through squadron/battalion level to provide a clearinghouse for artillery requests—called “fire missions”—from front-line units. The fire-control portion of the system takes positional data from an inertially aided navigational system to provide “instant” firing options for the MLRS crew. And it is this ability to instantly react to fire commands that makes the MLRS system so special, as we will examine later.
The payload for the MLRS system is carried at the rear of the vehicle—the M270 multiple-rocket launcher. The launcher is hydraulically actuated and aimed by the fire-control system. It is capable of loading and carrying a pair of pre-loaded rocket/missile pods. The basic weapon of the MLRS system is a family of unguided rockets carrying a variety of different payloads to a maximum range of about 20 miles/32 km. The pod of six rockets is designated M26 (each MLRS launcher carries two M26s). The rockets, which are known as M77s, are 12’ 10.8”/393.2 cm long, 8.94”/227mm in diameter, and weigh 676.5 lb/307.5 kg each. The M77 rocket is capable of carrying a number of warheads. These include the following options:• M77—The primary warhead, and the only one used during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, is composed of a package of 644 M77 dual-purpose submunitions. Each submunition weighs about .5 1b/.25 kg, and is about the size of a hand grenade, with both a fragmenting case and a shaped charge for use against vehicles. As the submunitions are dispersed out of the warhead, each one trails a streamer to stabilize it and make the submunition pattern more predictable. Overall, a single M26 rocket pod will spread its payload of submunitions over an area of fifteen to thirty acres (depending on overlap). Exposed troops will theoretically be killed anywhere within the impact zone, and a direct hit from a single submunition will usually destroy a truck or soft-skinned vehicle or disable a light armored vehicle.
• XR-M77—During the Gulf War, it became apparent that the Iraqi Army had tube artillery (specifically, the South African G-5) with a range of up to 25 miles/40 km. Because of this, the U.S. Army decided to modify the M77 rocket to extend the range to 28 miles/45 km. This is accomplished by decreasing the load of submunitions by about 20% to 518 (down from 644), and increasing the length of the rocket motor.
• AT-2—A dispenser for AT-2 parachute-retarded anti-tank mines is being developed for the MLRS rocket by a German industrial consortium. The warhead contains twenty-eight of the AT-2s, each of which can disable a heavy tank.
• SADARM-Under the Sense-And-Destroy ARMor (SADARM) program, the U.S. Army has developed (Aerojet Electrosystems Co. is the prime contractor) a special munition which can sense the presence of an armored vehicle or artillery piece while descending on three small parachutes. The sensor is a dual-mode seeker (infrared and millimeter-wave radar), which can sense the “hot spot” of a tank’s engine compartment, as well as the vehicle’s “center of radar mass,” which is normally the turret structure. Each rocket carries six of the SADARM munitions (there is also a program to deploy a 155mm tube-artillery shell capable of deploying two smaller SADARM munitions), which are ejected over concentrations of vehicles. When the sensor detects an armored vehicle or artillery piece in its field of view, it fires a self-forging projectile down into the top of the target. The status of this program is in doubt at the moment due to budget cuts.
• TOW—Another “smart” warhead for the MLRS was the Terminally Guided Warhead (TGW) munition. The TGW was a large anti-armor munition which used a “smart” millimeter-wave radar seeker to search out tanks and other priority targets. Once a TGW munition recognized a valid target (it can discriminate between various types of targets such as tanks, IFVs, artillery, etc.), it maneuvered over, and dove into the top of the target, destroying it with a large shaped charge. Each rocket would carry three of the TGW munitions. The United States opted out of the TGW program; France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are struggling to maintain it.
While there are many initiatives to develop and deploy improved warheads, only the basic M77 is in service. And it was this version that went to war in 1991. Overall, 201 (189 U.S., 12 British) MLRS vehicles fired a total of 9,660 M77 rockets during Desert Storm. These delivered some 6,221,040 of the deadly submunitions on Iraqi targets. The commander of the one British MLRS battery (twelve launchers) called it “the grid exterminator,” because of its ability to completely devastate an entire grid square (a square kilometer on standard military maps).
Good as unguided rockets are, there are times that a field commander wants to hit targets farther away than the 20-mile/32-kilometer range of the current variants being deployed. Many of the things that might cause a commander concern—such as surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, command posts, and logistics centers—are usually deployed in what is commonly known as the “rear echelons.” Up until recently, the only options open to an Army commander to strike at such targets was to call the Air Force or Navy for an air strike, or risk a high-value asset like an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter or a special-operations team to destroy them. In 1991, though, the Army deployed to the Persian Gulf 105 units of a new surface-to-surface weapon (SSM) known as the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). ATACMS is a stubby little SSM about 12 feet/4 meters in length, and 2 feet/.6 meters in diameter, with a range of between 60 and 90 miles/100 to 150 kilometers. It carries a payload of 950 M74 cluster bomblets, each of which roughly approximates a hand grenade in its effects. There are plans for other types of warheads for use against special targets.
Built and assembled at several facilities in Texas by Loral Vought Systems, each ATACMS is packed into an MLRS pod (which normally holds six M77 rockets), and can be loaded and fired by any MLRS launcher that has been modified with the appropriate fire-control and software upgrades. What makes ATACMS different is more than a simple extension in range. ATACMS has a highly accurate guidance system, which allows it to place its cloud of M74 bomblets exactly on target. And while the M74s do not quite pack the punch against armor that the M77 submunitions do, they are optimized for effects against “soft” targets. This means that things like radar sites, command-and-control vans, trucks, and fuel dumps are quite vulnerable to ATACMS missile strikes. This is not to say that the Army plans to dump ATACMS missiles all over
the battlefield. If their use in Desert Storm is any indication, the U.S. Army tends to treat them like “silver bullets.” In fact, only thirty of the 105 ATACMS missiles that were shipped to the Persian Gulf were fired by the eighteen M270 launchers that had been modified to fire the new missiles. The first shot fired in combat by VII Corps was a single ATACMS fired at an Iraqi SA-2 Guideline SAM battery. The battery was destroyed. The key point of this mission is that the Air Force called for the strike on the first day of the air war, to make it safe to fly their missions over the target zone!
So just how does one make use of all the technology and firepower embodied by the MLRS system? Well, consider the following example. An American force is massing for an attack on an opposing enemy ground force. The other side is not as stupid as Saddam Hussein, and they begin to detect signs of the coming attack. In response, the enemy commander plans a night artillery attack with heavy-tube artillery on the American force as it is concentrating, and thus when it is most vulnerable. The first sign is the flash of the enemy guns on the horizon. The next signal is more useful to the Americans. Somewhere along the American line sits an observation post with a Q-37 Firefinder artillery-spotting radar. The radar, which is designed to track the incoming shells back to their positions of origin, rapidly plots the positions of the enemy batteries on a terminal connected to the TACFIRE artillery-control network. So quickly does the Q-37 crew do their job, that all of the enemy batteries are probably plotted before the first shells have hit the ground. Up at the headquarters of the American unit, the TACFIRE computer is allocating fire missions for artillery units that have been programmed to stand by for such assignments. In fact, all of the fire missions for these units will probably be delivered electronically before the second rounds are fired by the enemy batteries.
Things really begin to happen quickly now. Each battery commander with a counter-battery mission will execute it as quickly as is possible. The quicker the enemy batteries are silenced, the fewer Americans will wind up in the hospital or in body bags. So vital is this mission that the current U.S. Army standard for responding to a counter-battery fire mission is about one minute flat. If the MLRS battery commander is already stopped and emplaced, then all they need to do is set the position of the enemy battery into the fire-control system and fire. But one of the best things about the MLRS system is its ability to move around in support of mobile units. So let’s assume that the unit we are looking at has been on a road march to the front. Each battery has a total of nine launchers (in three platoons of three), as well as eighteen M985 artillery ammunition carriers with trailers. These are variants of the M977 HEMTT truck, and each one tows a trailer equipped to carry the rocket pods for the MLRS system. Each M985 truck can carry eight pods of rockets, and each trailer carries eight more. In this case, we’ll assume that two of the platoons are loaded with M26 rocket pods (twelve rockets per launcher), and the other section has been loaded with ATACMS missiles (two per launcher). The battery commander decides to use only the six vehicles loaded with rockets, and hold the three launchers with their load of ATACMS missiles in reserve.
Interior of MLRS crew cabin. The gunner is entering targeting information on a keyboard. The large guarded toggles to his right are safety and arming switches. Both crewmen are wearing standard CVC (Combat Vehicle Crew) helmets with built-in microphones.
FMC CORPORATION
As soon as the fire mission is received, the battery commander orders the ammunition carriers to get away to a safe distance (to protect them from the rocket blast and any enemy counterfire), and the battery sections to deploy. Because each vehicle has its own POS/NAV system being fed updates from a NAVSTAR GPS receiver, each vehicle commander, and the onboard fire control system, can determine the position of each launcher with an accuracy of plus or minus 16 feet/5 meters. This also means that the launchers don’t have to be sited near each other to get an accurate dispersion pattern from the warheads of the M77 rockets. This data is automatically fed into the fire control system, as well as the position of the target. The gunner’s only job at this point is to monitor the system and tell it just how many rockets it is to fire (any number from one to twelve rockets per vehicle is possible), and await the fire command from the battery commander. The driver is somewhat busier, setting up the vehicle to fire. He locks the suspension to hold the vehicle steady, lowers the armored louvers over the windshield to protect them from the coming blast, and turns on the cab overpressure/filtration system to protect the crew from rocket exhaust fumes. While this may sound like a lot, it all happens in just a matter of seconds, and the MLRS is ready to fire.
When the six firing vehicles indicate that they are ready, the battery commander orders them to open fire, probably within no more than a minute after having received the fire mission from the TACFIRE system. The armored box containing the rocket pods at the rear of each launcher swivels and tilts to the proper angle and bearing (as set by the fire-control computer), and the first rocket is fired, followed at intervals of about five seconds by the others in a “ripple.” As the motor fires, and the rocket moves down the launch tube, it rides on a set of helical rails that impart a slow spin to help stabilize the rocket when it is ejected free. After it emerges from its launch tube, a small pyrotechnic charge helps to deploy and lock into place the four curved fins at the rear of the rocket. The curvature of the fins makes the rocket continue to spin. Also, the launcher automatically re-aims itself after launching each rocket to make up for any “jiggle” that might be caused by the rocket back-blast. (Crew who have fired the rockets tell us that the sound inside the vehicles is like the inside of a thundercloud. And to nearby observers, the firing of MLRS rockets seems to sound like ripping glass. Whether you’re inside or outside, the sight is impressive as the rockets fly out, particularly at night.) After the HTPB propellant rocket motor burns out a few seconds later, the rocket follows a ballistic course the rest of the way to the target. Once the rocket is over the target area, the electronic fuse detonates the dispersion, or core charge, at the center of the warhead. Then the M77 submunitions, which are packed in polyurethane foam, are dispersed and fall in a cloud towards the target. Since the six MLRS vehicles deliver a total of some 46,368 M77 munitions onto the enemy artillery site, the results are horrific: In all likelihood, every gun and artillery tractor will be struck by one of the submunitions, and either damaged or destroyed. Vehicles containing ammunition will have their loads detonated by contact with the M77s. And it goes without saying that the artillery crews are probably not going to survive. In fact, all that will probably be left at the site will be scrap iron and shredded flesh. This all happens before the guns have finished firing their third or fourth shell. All along the front, enemy artillery units simply “dissolve,” without so much as a whimper from their commanders. In a little while, the enemy high command will call, but nobody will be home to answer.
MLRS firing a rocket at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
OFFICIAL U.S ARMY PHOTO
MLRS Rocket Firing Sequence #2.
OFFICIAL U.S. ARMY PHOTO
MLRS Rocket Firing Sequence #3.
OFFICIAL U.S. ARMY PHOTO
But this is hardly the end of the story, for the battery commander now has the problem of making sure that what has just been done to the enemy battery does not happen to his battery. Ordering the battery into motion, he selects a grid coordinate where the battery can reform and reload the now-empty launchers. (This is what the U.S. Army means when it describes MLRS as a “shoot-and-scoot” system.) Meanwhile, as the battery heads for the reload point, other events are under way. Several American radio-direction-finding (RDF) units have been tracing the communications signals from a number of rear-area (within 60 to 90 miles/100 to 150 kilometers of the front line) enemy command posts (CPs); and the American force commander has decided to deal with them now. Once the positions of the enemy CPs have been determined, each is assigned a fire mission from an ATACMS missile launcher. Once again, the TACFI
RE system sends a string of instructions down to the battery to the onboard BCS terminals. The battery commander then likely just peels off the three ATACMS launchers to the side of the road, where they fire and then move along to the reload site on their own.
The setup procedure for the crew to fire ATACMS is almost identical to that of the M26 rockets. Only the end result is slightly different. Once again the launcher is locked down and sealed, the target positions are fed automatically into the fire-control system, and the launch signals given. Since ATACMS are valuable and their quantity limited, only one missile will be fired per target. As each missile clears the launch pod, the guidance fins deploy, and the missile heads off to its target looking for all the world like a cartoon weapon (ACME: a name you can trust!). The ATACMS is so stubby and bloated that a painted shark mouth (like the Flying Tigers used to paint on their P- 40s) would not be out of place on it. Meanwhile, using an inertial guidance system based on a special ring laser gyro, the ATACMS maneuvers so that it will arrive directly over its target. It takes several minutes to fly the 60 to 90 miles/100 to 150 kilometers. Once there, a small core charge detonates inside the package of cluster bomblets within the warhead. The bomblets then disperse over the target area, each with the destructive power of a hand grenade or small mortar round.