Rocket artillery is a type of
artilleryArtillery is a military combat Arm that employs weapons capable of discharging large projectiles in combat. They are generally capable of adding considerable fire power to the military capability of an armed force...
equipped with rocket launchers instead of conventional guns or
mortarsA mortar is a muzzle-loading indirect fire weapon that fires shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It typically has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber.- Function :...
.
Types of rocket artillery pieces include
multiple rocket launcherA multiple rocket launcher is a type of unguided rocket artillery system. Like other rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers are less accurate and have a much lower rate of fire than batteries of traditional artillery guns...
s.
History
The use of
rocketA rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the reaction of the rocket to the ejection of a jet of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine. Chemical rockets create their exhaust by the combustion of rocket propellant...
s as some form of artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used (albeit mostly as a psychological weapon). Firearrows were used in multiple launch systems and transported via carts. Fire arrows were also used in Korea, in devices such as the hwacha or the
SingijeonSingijeon is a multi-launch rocket made by Korean general Choe Mu-seon in 1377, during the Goryeo Dynasty under King U. These were launched by multiple means, such as the hwacha and other large-barreled guns. The Juhwa were the first singijeon, and the result of efforts to acquire the technology to...
. The use of medieval rocket artillery was picked up by the invading Mongols and spread to the
Ottoman TurksThe Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. Reliable information about the early history of the Ottomans is scarce. According to some sources , the leader of the Kayi tribe of the Oguz Turks, Ertugrul, left Persia in...
who in turn used them on the European battlefield.
Metal-cylinder Rocket Artillery
The first
ironIron is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element and is therefore classified as a transition metal. Iron and iron alloys are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use...
-cased
metalA metal is a chemical element that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat, forms cations and ionic bonds with non-metals. In chemistry, a metal is an element, compound, or alloy characterized by high electrical conductivity. In a metal, atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions...
-
cylinderIn firearms terminology, the Cylinder refers to the cylindrical, rotating part of a revolver containing multiple cartridge chambers. The cylinder revolves around a central axis in the revolver to bring each individual chamber into alignment with the barrel for firing...
rocket artillery were developed by
Tipu SultanSultan Fateh Ali Tipu November 1750, Devanahalli – 4 May 1799, Srirangapattana), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Islamic Kingdom of Mysore from 1782 until his own demise in 1799. He was the first son of Hyder Ali by his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-nissa...
, a Muslim ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, and his father
Hyder AliHyder Ali was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. He is said to have induced his brother to employ a Parsi to purchase artillery and small arms from the government of Bombay Presidency, and to enrol some thirty sailors of different European nations as gunners, and is...
, in the 1780s. He successfully used these metal-cylinder
rocketA rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the reaction of the rocket to the ejection of a jet of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine. Chemical rockets create their exhaust by the combustion of rocket propellant...
s against the larger forces of the
British East India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
during the
Anglo-Mysore WarsThe Anglo-Mysore Wars were a series of wars fought in India over the last three decades of the 18th century between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company, represented chiefly by the Madras Presidency...
. The
MysoreMysore is the second-largest city in the state of Karnataka, India. It is the headquarters of the Mysore district and the Mysore division and lies about southwest of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka. The name Mysore is an anglicised version of Mahishūru, which means the abode of Mahisha...
rockets of this period were much more advanced than what the British had seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to 2 km range). After Tipu's eventual defeat in the
Fourth Anglo-Mysore WarThe Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a war in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company under the Earl of Mornington....
and the capture of the Mysore iron rockets, they were influential in British rocket development, inspiring the
Congreve rocketThe Congreve Rocket was a British military weapon designed by Sir William Congreve in 1804.The British were greatly impressed by the Mysorean Rocket artillery made from iron tubes used by the armies of Tipu Sultan and his father, Haidar Ali. Tipu Sultan championed the use of mass attacks with...
, which was soon put into use in the
Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
.
According to Stephen Oliver Fought and John F. Guilmartin, Jr. in
Encyclopedia Britannica (2008): "
Hyder AliHyder Ali was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. He is said to have induced his brother to employ a Parsi to purchase artillery and small arms from the government of Bombay Presidency, and to enrol some thirty sailors of different European nations as gunners, and is...
, prince of
MysoreMysore is the second-largest city in the state of Karnataka, India. It is the headquarters of the Mysore district and the Mysore division and lies about southwest of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka. The name Mysore is an anglicised version of Mahishūru, which means the abode of Mahisha...
, developed war rockets with an important change: the use of metal cylinders to contain the
combustionCombustion or burning is a complex sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the production of heat or both heat and light in the form of either a glow or flames, appearance of light flickering.Direct combustion by atmospheric oxygen is a reaction...
powder. Although the hammered soft iron he used was crude, the bursting strength of the container of black powder was much higher than the earlier paper construction. Thus a greater internal pressure was possible, with a resultant greater thrust of the propulsive jet. The rocket body was lashed with leather thongs to a long bamboo stick. Range was perhaps up to three-quarters of a mile (more than a kilometre). Although individually these rockets were not accurate, dispersion error became less important when large numbers were fired rapidly in mass attacks. They were particularly effective against cavalry and were hurled into the air, after lighting, or skimmed along the hard dry ground. Hyder Ali's son, Tippu Sultan, continued to develop and expand the use of rocket weapons, reportedly increasing the number of rocket troops from 1,200 to a corps of 5,000. In battles at Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British."
Although the technique was familiar to Europeans from the 17th century their use fell out of favor until the late 18th century, when
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
n forces from
MysoreMysore is the second-largest city in the state of Karnataka, India. It is the headquarters of the Mysore district and the Mysore division and lies about southwest of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka. The name Mysore is an anglicised version of Mahishūru, which means the abode of Mahisha...
led by
Tipu SultanSultan Fateh Ali Tipu November 1750, Devanahalli – 4 May 1799, Srirangapattana), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Islamic Kingdom of Mysore from 1782 until his own demise in 1799. He was the first son of Hyder Ali by his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-nissa...
invented
ironIron is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element and is therefore classified as a transition metal. Iron and iron alloys are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use...
rockets for use as rocket artillery against British forces in battle, which led to the British development of the
Congreve rocketThe Congreve Rocket was a British military weapon designed by Sir William Congreve in 1804.The British were greatly impressed by the Mysorean Rocket artillery made from iron tubes used by the armies of Tipu Sultan and his father, Haidar Ali. Tipu Sultan championed the use of mass attacks with...
. The British thereafter reverse engineered and used iron case "
Congreve rocketThe Congreve Rocket was a British military weapon designed by Sir William Congreve in 1804.The British were greatly impressed by the Mysorean Rocket artillery made from iron tubes used by the armies of Tipu Sultan and his father, Haidar Ali. Tipu Sultan championed the use of mass attacks with...
s" in several armed conflicts during the 19th century, including the
Battle of WaterlooIn the Battle of Waterloo forces of the French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte and Michel Ney were defeated by those of the Seventh Coalition, including an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher...
. Ironically, the technology of metal-cylinder missiles developed by
Tipu SultanSultan Fateh Ali Tipu November 1750, Devanahalli – 4 May 1799, Srirangapattana), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Islamic Kingdom of Mysore from 1782 until his own demise in 1799. He was the first son of Hyder Ali by his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-nissa...
contributed to the defeat of his ally Napolean in the
Battle of WaterlooIn the Battle of Waterloo forces of the French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte and Michel Ney were defeated by those of the Seventh Coalition, including an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher...
.
World War II
Modern rocket artillery was first employed during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, in the form of the German
NebelwerferThe Nebelwerfer was a World War II German series of weapons designed to deliver chemical weapons. They were initially developed by and assigned to the Wehrmacht's Chemical Troops . They were primarily intended to deliver poison gas and smoke shells, although a high-explosive shell was developed...
and Soviet
KatyushaKatyusha multiple rocket launchers are a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. Compared to other artillery, these multiple rocket launchers deliver a devastating amount of explosives to an area target quickly, but with lower accuracy and requiring a...
-series. The Soviet Katyushas, nicknamed by Nazi German troops Stalin Organs because of their visual resemblance to a church musical organ, were mounted on trucks or light tanks, while the German Nebelwerfer was a towed and therefore less mobile piece. The Germans also had some self-propelled rocket artillery in the form of the
PanzerwerferPanzerwerfer is the name for two different types of half-tracked multiple rocket launchers employed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War...
and
Wurfrahmen 40The Wurfrahmen 40 was a German World War II multiple rocket launcher. It combined a vehicle such as the SdKfz 251 halftrack or captured ex-French Renault UE Chenillette with rocket artillery to form a more mobile and slightly more protected artillery piece than the towed Nebelwerfer...
which equipped
half-trackA half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with regular wheels on the front for steering, and caterpillar tracks on the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. The purpose of this combination is to produce a vehicle with the cross-country capabilities of a tank and the handling...
armoured fighting vehicleAn armoured fighting vehicle is a military vehicle, protected by armour and armed with weapons. AFV's can be wheeled or tracked.Armoured fighting vehicles are classified according to their intended role on the battlefield and characteristics. This classification is not absolute; at different times...
s. An oddity in the subject of rocket artillery during this time was the German "
SturmtigerSturmtiger is the common name of a World War II German assault gun built on the Panzer VI Tiger I chassis and armed with a large naval rocket launcher, the 38 cm Raketen-Werfer RW61 L/5.4. Its primary task was to provide heavy fire support for infantry units fighting in urban areas...
", a vehicle based on the
Tiger IThe Tiger I was a German heavy tank used in World War II, produced from late 1942 as an answer to the unexpectedly formidable Soviet armour encountered in the initial months of Operation Barbarossa, particularly the T-34 and the KV-1...
heavy tank chassis that was armed with a 380 mm rocket
mortarA mortar is a muzzle-loading indirect fire weapon that fires shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It typically has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber.- Function :...
.
The Western Allies of World War II employed little rocket artillery. During later periods of the war, British and
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
troops used the
Land MattressMattress was the term applied to ground-based Allied multiple rocket launchers during World War II. Compared with the German and Soviet forays into this area the Allies developed and deployed these weapons late in the war...
, a towed rocket launcher. The
United States ArmyThe United States Army is the branch of the United States Military responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military and is one of seven uniformed services...
built and deployed a small number of
T34 CalliopeThe Rocket Launcher T34 was a tank-mounted multiple rocket launcher used by the United States Army during World War II. The launcher was placed atop the Medium Tank M4, and fired a barrage of 4.5 in rockets from 60 launch tubes. It was developed in 1943; small numbers were produced and were...
rocket tanks (converted from
M4 ShermanThe M4 Sherman, formally Medium Tank, M4, was the primary tank used by the United States during World War II. It was also distributed to the Allies via lend lease. Evolved from previous medium and light tanks, it was the first American medium tank with a fully traversing turret for the main gun...
medium tanks) in France and Italy. In 1945, the British also fitted some Shermans with two
60 lb RP3 rocketThe RP-3 , was a British rocket used in the Second World War. Though primarily an air-to-ground weapon, it saw limited use in other roles. Its 60 lb warhead gave rise to the alternative name of the "60 lb rocket"; the 25 lb solid-shot armour piercing variant was referred to as the "25 lb rocket"...
s, the same as used on ground attack aircraft and known as
Tulip. In the Pacific, however, the US Navy made heavy use of rocket artillery, adding to the already intense bombardment by the guns of heavy warships to soften up Japanese-held islands before the Marines would land. On
Iwo JimaThe Battle of Iwo Jima , or Operation Detachment, was a battle in which the United States fought for and captured Iwo Jima from Japan...
, the US Marines made use of rocket artillery trucks in a similar fashion as the Soviet Katyusha, but on a lesser scale.
Post-World War II
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
fitted some of their
Sherman tanksSherman tanks saw extensive use around the world after World War II. This article catalogues foreign post-World War II use and conversions of Sherman tanks and variants based on the Sherman chassis.-US foreign aid variants:...
with different rocket artillery. An unconventional Sherman conversion was the turretless
Kilshon ("Trident") that launched a
AGM-45 ShrikeAGM-45 Shrike is an American anti-radiation missile designed to home in on hostile antiaircraft radars. The Shrike was developed by the Naval Weapons Center at China Lake in 1963 by mating a seeker head to the rocket body of an AIM-7 Sparrow. It was phased out by U.S...
anti-radiation missileAn anti-radiation missile is a missile which is designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communication can also be targeted in this manner.- Air-to-Ground :Most ARM...
.
The Soviet Union continued its development of the Katyusha during the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, and also exported them widely.
Modern rocket artillery such as the US
M270 Multiple Launch Rocket SystemThe M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System is a multiple rocket launcher, a type of rocket artillery.The first rocket systems were delivered to the U.S. Army in 1983. The system is in widespread use in NATO countries and it has also been manufactured in Europe. Some 1,300 M270 systems have been...
is highly mobile and are used in similar fashion to other
self-propelled artillerySelf-propelled artillery vehicles are a way of giving mobility to artillery. Within the term are covered self-propelled guns and rocket artillery...
.
Rocket artillery vs Tube artillery
- Rockets produce no recoil, while conventional artillery systems produce significant recoil. Unless firing within a very small arc with the possibility of wrecking a self propelled artillery system's vehicle suspension, gun artillery must usually be braced against recoil. In this state they are immobile, and can not change position easily. Rocket artillery is much more mobile and can change position easily. This "shoot-and-scoot" ability makes the platform difficult to target. A rocket artillery piece could, conceivably, fire on the move. Rocket systems produce a significant amount of backblast, however, which imposes its own restrictions. Launchers may be sited by the arcs, and their fire can damage themselves or neighbouring vehicles.
- Rocket artillery cannot usually match the accuracy and sustained rate of fire of conventional artillery. They may be capable of very destructive strikes by delivering a large mass of explosives simultaneously, thus increasing the shock effect and giving the target less time to take cover. Modern computer-controlled conventional artillery have recently begun to acquire the possibility to do something similar through MRSI but it is an open question if MRSI is really practical in a combat situation.
- Rocket artillery typically has a very large fire signature, leaving a clear smoke-trail showing exactly where the barrage came from. Since the barrage does not take much time, however, the rocket artillery can move away quickly.
- Tube artillery can use a forward observer to correct fire, thus achieving further accuracy. This is usually not practical with rocket artillery.
- Tube artillery shells are typically cheaper and less bulky than rockets, so they can deliver a larger amount of explosive at the enemy per weight of ammunition or per money spent.
- While tube artillery shells are smaller than rockets, the gun itself must be very large to match the range of rockets. Therefore rockets typically have longer range while the rocket launchers remain small enough to mount on mobile vehicles. Extremely large guns like the Paris Gun
The Paris Gun was a German artillery piece used to bombard Paris during World War I. This oversized railway gun was in service from March-August 1918. When it was first employed, Parisians believed they'd been bombed by a new type of high-altitude zeppelin, as neither the sound of an airplane nor...
have been rendered obsolete by long range missiles.
- If the artillery barrage was intended as a preparation for an attack, and it usually is, a short but intense barrage will give the enemy less time to prepare by, for instance, dispersing.
- The higher accuracy of gun artillery means that it can be used to attack an enemy close to a friendly force. This combined with the higher capacity for sustained fire makes cannon artillery more suitable than rocket artillery for defensive fire. It is also the only practicable system for counter-battery fire
Counter-battery fire is a type of mission assigned to military artillery forces, which are tasked with locating and firing upon enemy artillery.- Background :...
.
See also
- List of artillery rockets
- Multiple rocket launcher
A multiple rocket launcher is a type of unguided rocket artillery system. Like other rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers are less accurate and have a much lower rate of fire than batteries of traditional artillery guns...
- Tactical ballistic missile
A tactical ballistic missile is a ballistic missile designed for short-range battlefield use. Typically range is less than 300 km. Tactical ballistic missiles are usually mobile to ensure survivability and quick deployment, as well as carrying a variety of warheads to target enemy facilities,...