Ukrainian Armed Forces revive rocket launchers
The realities of a full-scale war against Russia have generated a demand for an interesting type of weapon, which we will analyze below
In early May, the State Border Guard Service revealed that it had received, among other things, 128-mm trailed MLRSs of the RAK-SA-12 type manufactured in Croatia. These systems have 12 guides that can fire rockets at a rate of 1 rocket per 1 second, or a volley of 12 rockets in 9.6 seconds.
The weight of a fully armed RAK-SA-12 is only 960 kg; it takes up to 1 minute 30 seconds to deploy the already loaded MLRS, up to 3 minutes 30 seconds to deploy with reloading, and up to 1 minute to deploy from the combat position. The range of the RAK-SA-12 is from 800 to 8000 meters, with the option of firing from a remote control at a distance of up to 25 meters from the launcher.
If we summarize all the declared characteristics, this system can be called something between a “classic” 120-mm mortar and a light 105-mm howitzer, which, however, can “dump” as many as 12 rocket “gifts” on the occupiers’ heads in just 10 seconds of firing.
It seems that for the Croats themselves, the RAK-SA-12 is more of an export product. According to The Military Balance 2022, the Croatian Armed Forces do not currently have such MLRS in service, with only 21 BM-21 Grad systems and six M92 Vulkan systems in service. Therefore, there are two options here: either Croatia, as a member of the Ramstein format, offered to supply RAK-SA-12 to the Ukrainian Defense Forces, or we requested such systems for Ukrainian soldiers.
In turn, the very fact of receiving the RAK-SA-12 looks like a logical development of our defenders’ experiments on “improvised MLRS on pickup trucks.”
Here we can mention, in particular, the “Sowing machine VM-8” system with blocks of 16 launchers for firing unguided S-8 air defense missiles. The advantage of the Sivalka for S-8 is, in particular, the ability to remove the unit for firing the missile in case of damage to the pickup truck, while the possible disadvantage is that the range of the S-8 in normal mode is only 4-5 kilometers.
Or the Grad on a pickup truck, where the vehicle chassis can usually accommodate three guides for firing 122-mm unguided rockets. The range and accuracy of firing under such conditions are not known for certain, but given the shortage of other means of destruction against the Russian occupiers, even such improvised weapons look effective.
It is usually believed that the appearance of such systems in the hands of our defenders is a “symptom” of the lack of “classical” MLRS to destroy the Russian occupiers. Although such a problem is being solved in all possible ways, for example, even Romanian MLRS are already beating the racists in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
However, it seems that Grads on pickup trucks, S-8 seeders, or Croatian RAK-SA-12 should be classified as a separate class of weapons – rocket mortars, which may well become the best weapon against infantry assaults by the Russian army. And accordingly, such weapons should be scaled up in production using the capacities of state or private enterprises.
