M87 Orkan (1987)
Yugoslavia
Rocket Launcher Truck (1987) - c21 built
The M-87 Orkan (Serbian: 'hurricane') is a Yugoslavian fully automated self-propelled multiple rocket launcher. The M-87 was a complete weapon system comprising a 12 launch tubes mount on a FAP 2832 truck chasss, with has a range of 50-120 km, and capability to deliver various warheads for a lot of uses on the battlefield. It was a domestic answer to the Soviet BM-21. The production of Orkan M-87 ceased with the breakup of Yugoslavia. In May 1995, the Republic of Serbian Krajina used M-87 Orkan to attack Zagreb, after Croatian forces captured former Serbian territories. They also saw action in the 1991 gulf war, as part the Iraqi army. The vehicle is now rather forgotten and confidential outside the Balkans.
Design
Development of the M87 started as a joint Yugoslav-Iraqi project as "KOL-15". Saddam indeed as the Iran-Iraq war wanted to diversify its procurement and started to look up at what Yugoslavia had to offer. The other one was the M84 MBT. Professor Obrad Vučurović worked as concept designer and chief engineer on this project and during talks with the Iraqi delegation, Yugoslavia offered two options:
-An MRL with 12 rocket tubes, 50 km range
-An MRL with 4 tubes only but for 120 km range rockets
Iraq chose the first option and soon the Yugoslavian army, also interested by the project, approved the same. Two prototypes were built, one for Yugoslavia and one for Iraq. In accordance with both, rockets were developed with cluster warheads and tailored for local uses.
The development of this fully automated and long-range systm firing 262 mm multfunction rockets began in 1980, so just as the war started between Iran and Iraq, and at a phase in which Yugoslavia, non aligned with the Warsaw Pact, ramped up its domestic military insutries. The fact that solutions for several similar subsystems had already been developed, the M87 greatest asset was to be fully automated whie having a very large caliber, not compatible with existing Soviet rockets, and for which a number of technological problems had to be solved, explaning the long development. The system was designed to be carried by a specially developed variant of the new standard 9t Yugosvalian medium truck, of the 8x8 family.
As decribed by the chief operating officer of the Artillery department of the Military Technical Institute, professor Obrad Vučurović, the "Orkan" was a completely domestic project dictated by the 1980s Yugoslav doctrine, and based on the comparison with among other the BM-21. It was assumed that simply copying the latter would make Yugoslavia at least five years behind the developement schedule of the latter.
Unique features when introduced in 1987 when compared to the competition included:
-The ability to disperse anti-tank or anti-personnel mines at 50 km range in the path of an approaching force*.
-Semi-automatic loading. (It was still manual on many vehicles, including the early BM-21)
-Preparations to fire in two minutes.
-Automatic laying, very precise with a TV camera corrector after launch to correcting the rocket path.
-Automatic barrel sight.
-Hard Chromed barrels which avoided the cleaning phase bewtween reloads.
*The Mines KB-2 used in this configuration had wings and parachutes plus two fuses, magnetic by proximity and with a self-destruction mechanism after 24 or up to 48 hours). This was a humaniatarian measure as Sovit mines had not sich system. According still to Obrad Vučurović,the ability of the M87 to disperse anti-tank or anti-personnel mines in the path of an approaching force was the main advtantage of the sytem, rather than just "hammering" the approaching force.
The system entered service in 1988. Yugoslavia at the time became one of the few countries using such automated system. It was also defined by a high accuracy in four ballistic versions, high effect on target, achieved by cluster warheads in two versions and that innovative television corrector to adjust the trajectory flight in the inintial climbing phase. This implied rockets with a good communication link and nozzles and wings for these corrections in flight. These made these rockets more complex and costly than the Soviet ones, even the early "dumb" rockets used by NATO systems such as the M270.
The M87 weapon system used cluster warhead rockets for fire support of operational formations, targeting as defined by the Yugoslavian Army staff, concentrations of personnel, tank, mechanized and motorized units. It was also light enough to be usabled by the airborne and naval landings and to attack command posts and communication centers on the rear lines as well as artillery and tactical ballistic missile firing positions, or aircraft on the ground in open space but also logistical infrastructure or any other vital military and industrial facility. When using anti-tank mines, the system was used to stop dead any armour penetration, enabing time for reinforcement, air strikes and artillery strikes.
FAP 2832 Base
The FAP 2832 base vehicle was an existing 8x8 medium truck made fo special use with heavy loads. It is provided with a central tyre pressure inflation system operated by the driver from within the cab, providing also more stable firing platform. Four stabilisers are lowered to the ground when firing, by remote control, On both rear corner, and two in front of the rear axles. When travelling, the launcher is traversed 90% to the front, locked in place, and the whole launcher is protected, covered by a tarpaulin cover on a multitude of bows. This makes the vehicle also looking like a regular supply truck to deceive enemy intel.
Under the classic COE cab, the vehicle is powered by a direct injection diesel engine rated for 319.5 hp with a top speed on highway of 80 km/h and a range of 600 km. The drive is applied to all axles for a 8×8 drive configuration. There is also a winch forward. The cab is NBC rotected and there is a ring mount for a 7.62 mm LMG. The vehicle coould allegedly climb a gradient of 60%, a side slope of 25% and a vertical step, and a trench of 1.8 m.
Armament
Each rocket is 4.6 metres long, packed in a glass-ceramic housing, transported inside its chrome-plated tubes. The rockets are reloaded by another special FAP 3232 with a built-in crane. The rocket speed is 1000 m/s and those with extended range are 4.88 m long, weighting 404 kg. A battery of four launchers with 16 barrels each, made for a total of 192 rockets, covering in a full salvo a target area of 3–4 km².
The M87 Orkan is provided with numerous options:
-M-87-APHE: 91 kg Fragmentation warhead each, range 50 km.
-M-87-APHE-ER: 91 kg Fragmentation warhead, range 65 km.
-M-87-PFHE-ER: Pre-fragmented warhead with double-size balls, range 65 km.
-M-87-ICM-AT: 288 piece shaped charge bomblets type KB-2, range 50 km.
-M-87-ICM-AP: 420 piece splinter bomblets, range 50 km.
-M-87-AT; 2 YU-S-AT (KPOM) antitank magnetic mines, range 50 km.
Unit composition
A typical M87 Orkan battery consists of four launchers vehicles, four resupply vehicles each with 24 rockets, one 8×8 command post vehicle (same truck base), two 4×4 topographic survey light vehicles, two 4×4 observation post-light vehicles, and one 4×4 meteorological survey vehicle.
Variants
There were a few modifications of Orkan M-87:
-Army of Republika Srpska (Serbian Rep.): Two barrels on a Luna R-65 launcher based on a
ZIL-135.
-Serbia and Montenegro: Krupp M-418/37, two Orkan barrels.
-M-96 Orkan II (Serbia). Four 262mm tubes on a standard ZIL-135 launcher, reversible. Newly developed rockets of the Orkan II type are capable of 65 km.
-Orkan CER, developed by Yugoimport SDPR, based on KamAZ-6350.
-Dominator M2/12 MLRS multi-caliber MLRS developed by Yugoimport with 16x 262mm Orkan rockets.
TOROS artillery rocket system
In 1990s Turkey's relations with the USA degraded and was denied some missiles and rocket US systems. In order continue having a domestic supply of multiple rocket launcher systems, Turkey reverse engineered its own versions but needed to have a supply of 227mm rockets based on the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System M26 standard under project SAGE 227. Turkey obtained Orkan M-87 documentation, launcher and rockets from Bosnia and Herzegovina via the Bratstvo Novi Travnik factory in 1995. They were used to develop domestic 260mm rockets and a new launcher, shortening development of 5 years with first tests of the new 230 and 260mm rockets produced in Turkey from Orkan M-87s in April 1999. It was since produced as the TUROS system.
Operators
Yugoslavia: 9 preserie, 1 prototype 1987-88.
Serbia: 4 M-96 Orkan II
Bosnia and Herzegovina: 1 non-operational, Banja Luka, 1 completed, 3 partially assembled, destroyed with their rockets.
Croatia: 1 in reserve due to lack of rocket stock, 1 in museum
Iraq: Four vehicle, four reload vehicles. In 2000-2001, the reload vehicles were transformed into launchers using SM-90 mounts from surplus S-75 Dvina SAM with six tubes instead of 12, but no longer operational.
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| Dimensions: | 9 x 2.64 x 3.84m (29 ft 6 in x 8 ft 8 in x 12 ft 7 in) |
| Total weight: | 32t |
| Tires: | 8×8 |
| Crew: | 5 |
| Propulsion: | Direct injection diesel 319.5 hp |
| Speed: | 80 km/h (50 mph) |
| Range (road/off road): | 600 km |
| Armament: | 12 x 262 mm rockets Orkan ll x 4 |
| Production: | c21 |