M-87 hurricane

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Museum exhibit of the M-87 hurricane in Vukovar, Croatia

The M-87 Hurricane is a semi-automatic large-caliber multiple rocket launcher system developed in the 1980s by the armed forces of Yugoslavia at the Vojno Tehnički Institute (VTI) and financed in equal parts by Yugoslavia and Iraq , which despite only few examples being produced during the wars in Yugoslavia, Albania and Iraq between 1991 and 1999 was used. With the high precision achieved at the time, which was able to follow targets in the same range through aerodynamic brakes on four different ballistic trajectories and a warhead made of cluster ammunition, the "hurricane" was designed to combat larger troop concentrations and area targets. With the beginning of the equipment of the land forces of Iraq and the possible integration of chemical warheads, the weapon system came into the focus of US authorities in the mid-1990s.

development

idea

The Šumadija system presented in 2017 is a further development

After the Yugoslav People's Army received the M-77 Oganj in 1977, a multiple rocket launcher with a caliber of 128 mm that had been technically advanced from the Soviet Grad system , plans arose in 1980 for a rocket launcher that should be able to fight targets at distances of 50 km. The task was again transferred to Obrad Vučurović , who for many years was the head of the missile sector of the Military Technical Institute (VTI) in Belgrade and professor of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade and the Military Academy.

While Vučurović had already broken new ground with the M-77, the M-87 was a fundamentally new design that differed significantly from large-caliber systems in the West (USA: M270 ) and also in the East (Soviet Union: BM-30 ) surpassed this in performance. Vučurović had taken many constructive measures to improve range and precision. Since the price of guided missiles was about five times higher than that of unguided missiles, his basic idea was to achieve an effect equivalent to that of a guided missile with two or three missiles. He developed a missile that could be controlled by two pairs of aerodynamic brakes in target flight and carried a warhead that achieved high target coverage with cluster submunition. For the warhead, he needed a new ignition mechanism that activated the submunition through acceleration and rotation.

Vučurović calculated that 80% of the errors in the ballistic trajectory came from the take-off phase after leaving the muzzle. Only 20% occur in the following active and passive flight phase. In addition, the integration of INS or GPS made a significantly higher precision possible. He decided to use a booster motor to accelerate the rockets to at least twice the speed of known systems during the launch phase. While comparable systems had reached 35 to 50 m / s in the start phase, the impulse of the booster accelerated the hurricane rocket to 100 m / s in 0.2 seconds. A variant for 130 m / s was also considered, but was not implemented due to the tight deadlines. Another innovation concerned the aerodynamic brakes, which were controlled in two pairs for different ranges in the passive phase. In the launch phase of the first three rockets, a CCD camera was used to analyze their flight phase. The other missiles were fired with the corrected data, a link to all other vehicles in the battalion entered the correction values ​​for all launchers. The next innovation was the warhead, which contained submunitions. Whereas normal missiles had a simple structure consisting of a warhead, fuel chamber and motor, the Vučurović missile was now much more complex in its basic configuration: it had a warhead with submunition, a double fuel chamber for two different types of fuel, a two-stage engine and two pairs of aerodynamic ones Brakes. In addition, a digital weapons control system was developed for the first time for the hurricane system. Overall, this was the first time that a system for distances of up to 50 km was created in competition with controlled systems, but which was superior in terms of the cost-benefit ratio. The integration of all newly developed components into the system as well as the complex production for which specialized machines were procured proved to be a particular hurdle. For the production of the two similarly constructed combustion chambers alone, steels were prefabricated with presses with a pressure of 1600 tons. In the further manufacture of these high-performance combustion chambers, CNC lathes, cylinder pressure rollers and kilns were used for hardening. The two combustion chambers were screwed together later. They withstood pressures of up to 400 bar. The problem with these combustion chambers was the high impulse required for the motors to accelerate to 100 m / s in the first 0.2 seconds. When the rocket was launched, both engines fired at the same time and caused enormous pressure in the combustion chambers that comparable systems were not familiar with. The pressure in the combustion chamber for the march engine was 120 to 160 bar. The technological problem was not the marching engine, which was active between four to five seconds, but the booster, which with its high pressure made the enormous acceleration possible in just 0.2 seconds of burning time. Since the outside temperature of the smokeless black powder also has a major influence on the burning time, the hurricane system measured the temperature of the black powder in the combustion chambers with a sensor. From this, the necessary burning time of the engines and adjustments to the target flight were calculated in the weapon control system.

Its high level of automation was decisive for the efficiency and precision of the storm. This already began with the robotized crane, which pushed the rockets one after the other into the tubes. After the topographic vehicle had given the hurricane system the true north direction at the location in about two minutes, the zero azimuth was set for each weapon system. The horizontal setting was carried out automatically for each vehicle independently of the stabilizers. The zero elevation was thus established. The turret then uses servos to set the required azimuth and elevation. The weapons control system analyzed 20 parameters (including temperature, humidity, air pressure, temperature of the black powder, ground wind and wind at altitude). After the first missile was fired, the CCD camera analyzed its trajectory. Within two seconds, the hurricane rocket automatically stabilized in the previous position and direction. The now reduced mass and the effect of the rocket launch were automatically compensated. The CCD camera only makes sense when the weapon system is reset again, since it needs the same position and elevation parameters for the next missile without the weapon system being in a different firing position. The first three rockets were fired at intervals of five seconds, and only the fourth rocket was fired in the Rafal, as the position should not be held for too long due to the risk of fire from the enemy.

Further analyzes showed that unguided rockets for ranges of up to 120 km were also economical with the finished project. From this he designed the R400 system, which should operate with a caliber of 400 mm and a range of 120 km. The project documents were sold to Iraq, which tried to develop it further in a technologically modified form as Ababil-100 (also Ababeel or Al Fatah) independently and with the help of Yugoslav technicians.

Project KOL-15

The Yugoslav developers found an interested party in Iraq who could bear the development costs, but who also showed an interest in the Brazilian ASTROS II . Both systems were therefore compared with one another in test runs in Iraq in 1987. Iraq opted for both systems, which would later be manufactured in licensed versions in the country as the Ababil-50 and Sajil-60 . In addition to the financial resources, Iraq also provided the test sites for the main phase of the weapons system test, which were carried out mainly in desert areas of Iraq in addition to the Yugoslav test sites in Nikinci, Platamuni (Prevlaka peninsula) and in particular Krivolak. Iraq also contributed to the development with human resources. In the early 1980s, for example, key figures from the Iraqi missile program and 60 Iraqi engineers under Saddam Hussein were in Yugoslavia. The most prominent among them was Amir Hamudi Hasan Al-Sa'di , a later military advisor to Saddam Hussein and the son of the influential General Hossam Mohammed Amin , the director of Iraq's military industry, who remained in Belgrade from 1981 to 1985 as a technical advisor. Iraq had ordered four batteries, each with four launchers, and 4,000 rockets in a first installment. The first prototype was ready in 1985. The system was first introduced in 1987. Only a few units were produced until the outbreak of the Second Gulf War, an initial shipment of a battery reached Iraq in 1989, but ten systems were in the production facility in Novi Travnik in 1990 when the UN issued an embargo on Iraq.

As a further buyer of the system, the Kuwaiti armed forces, after comparing them with American, German, Russian and Chinese systems, opted for the new hurricane system produced by Yugoslavia and signed the contracts for 24 batteries with four launchers each and 1000 rockets per battery in 1990. The Kuwait War and the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991 brought the end of production. The former Yugoslav republics were the hurricane system only partly in Yugoslavia war bring used, since although the final production in machine-building plant "Bratstvo" Novi Travnik in Bosnia took place, but the rockets only at "Pretis" in the district of Vogosca in Sarajevo as well as the time fuse mechanisms for the fragmentation warheads at "Krušik" in Valjevo. While Bratstvo was controlled by the Croatian and later Muslim troops, Pretis was in the hands of the Bosnian Serbs. The Krajina Serbs used only one complete system during the Yugoslav war , which consisted of the prototype stationed in the JNA artillery school in Zadar. This hurricane system later found its way into the jurisprudence of the ICTY, as the Krajina Serbs had used it for a two-day bombardment of Zagreb during the reconquest of East Krajina by the Croatian army in May 1995, which was punished as a war crime.

Follow-up development

Due to the networking and specialization of the Yugoslav military industry, production of the system had to be stopped in 1991. Even individual components (including rockets) could no longer be manufactured due to the networked production. During the Bosnian War, the Bosnian factories involved in final production (“Bratstvo” Novi Travnik, “Pretis” Vogošča, “SPS-Vitezit” Vitez) were controlled by different warring parties. Since special machines were required for the components, but no licensed spare parts were supplied due to the war embargo, a simple conversion of production or outsourcing to other factories was out of the question. For the missile warheads, electronic termination was necessary in the containers, the components of which were manufactured by Rudi Čajevec (Banja Luka). Without electronic termination, the detonators, which were not impact detonators, remained inactive. The submunition was activated after ejection at 1000 m above the ground and its rotation.

In the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia they first made do with the conversion of existing components. The state-owned Yugoimport-SDPR -Holding had developed the Orkan II as an ad-hoc platform for launching the R-262 rockets from the pipes in the Technical Test Center in Belgrade (TOC) for testing the system and the obsolete FROG-7 . From 1997, the Army of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had a hurricane system with reduced efficiency and military use (four to twelve missiles that could not be corrected in the flight phase).

In 2017, Yugoimport SDPR presented a four- to twelve-pipe newly developed modular prototype. The international premiere took place at the " IDEX -2017" in Abu Dhabi . The two modules of the weapon system called “Šumadija” have calibers of 267 mm and 400 mm. "Jerina 2" is a caliber with 267 mm and up to twelve tubes, "Jerina 1" is 400 mm with four to eight tubes. The latter is based on the R400, which was developed at the VTI in the late 1980s. The stated range is 75 and 285 km, respectively. The warheads weigh 110 or 200 kg. Control is possible via INS or GPS.

A translocation of individual elements of the hurricane production was carried out as part of the 1995 Dayton Agreement. The machine tools in Vogošča belonging to the KOL-15 system were transported from Sarajevo via Novi Zvornik to Valjevo. As the Bosnian magazine Žurnal reported on April 16, 2019, the Croatian-Herzegovinian local politicians of the HDZ later sold central production components of the solid rocket fuels, which had been produced in "SPS-Vitezit" in Vitez , to Serbia. Until then, only the chemical plant “SPS-Vitezit” had produced the double-base fuels (NGR375 and NGR 367) for the hurricane rocket. The plants sold to Serbia have been dismantled since 2009.

variants

M-87 Hurricane II
  • M-87 Orkan: First version with twelve turret tubes on a truck FAP -2832
  • M-87 Orkan II (M1996): Ad-hoc version from Serbia with four launcher tubes on a truck ZIL-135 (9P113M2)

technology

"Jerina 1" (400 mm), "Jerina 2" (267 mm), Eurosatory, Paris 2018
Thrower with four 400 mm tubes

The hurricane multiple rocket launcher system is a highly automated system that was considered to be one of the most powerful unguided ballistic ground-to-ground systems when it was commissioned, with 288 anti-personnel fragmentation warheads falling from a height of 1000 m on parachutes or 24 anti-tank mines a large area Effective circle reached. What was special about the system was that for an unguided rocket with a range of 50 km at the time, it had a low target deviation. It was achieved through the high initial speed when a booster was ignited in the tubes, which accelerated the rocket to 130 m / s in 0.2 seconds, and a camera-corrected flight path. The innovative system was also characterized by a high level of automation with a centrally controlled pneumatic system for tire pressure and the automated loading crane for the rockets. The first three trajectories were analyzed using a CCD camera attached between the tubes. All other rockets in a salvo were fired with the correction data obtained. Since the highest precision was achieved with an angle of attack of the launcher arm of 45 °, the rockets were controlled by brakes when deployed below the maximum range, but always fired from the optimal shooting position. These brakes opened automatically when the range was less than 50 km. The detonation mechanisms of the cluster bombs, which were only activated when the rocket reached a certain acceleration, were also highly complex. As a result, they were inactive in the launch tubes. An accident with a rocket has not yet been reported.

The first version of the launch vehicle was an FAP-2832 truck weighing 9 tons. When fully loaded, it weighed 32 tons. A horizontally and vertically pivoting turret arm was installed on the vehicle above the rear axle. Twelve launcher tubes for rockets of caliber 262 mm were attached to this in three layers . The rockets were fired at 5 second intervals. The manual reloading of an empty turret with a crane took around 30 minutes. A battery consisted of four launcher vehicles, four Nachladefahrzeugen with 28 rockets, a command post with Teldix - navigation system , two reconnaissance vehicles, a meteorological observation vehicle and two survey vehicles. It took around three minutes to prepare for fire. The termination of the position took about a minute. A battalion with 16 launch vehicles covered a target area of ​​3 to 4 km² with 192 missiles. A fire control computer system, in conjunction with the automated central leveling of the rocket platform from the cabin and the data from the meteorological and topographical car, was able to guarantee high precision. A camera provided the correction data for leveling the launcher from the deviations of the first three rockets. The digital computer system of the Hurricane System (SUV - Sistem Upravljana Vatrom) was the first developed for the land forces of Yugoslavia. The training of the Iraqi artillerymen on the fire control computer system of the hurricane system was carried out in the artillery school of the JNA in Zadar .

The 288 fragmentation bombs with a caliber of 40 mm each carry 1000 steel balls. You are dropped on a parachute over the target area. Each of the steel balls has a lethal radius of 10 m. The 24 anti-tank mines have a caliber of 105 mm with a mass of 1.8 kg each.

Regulation of the ranges

The hurricane system has two options for regulating the firing range: by elevating the thrower or by using aerodynamic brakes. No aerodynamic brakes are active when elevating the thrower. Ranges of 15 to 50 km are possible here.

When setting the aerodynamic brakes, four positions are possible with an ideal elevation of 45 °: N - closed (for ranges from 39.4 to 50 km), 2kk - two short active (29.4 to 39.4 km), 2kd - two longer ones (21.4 to 29.4 km) and 4 K - all four active (5 to 21.4 km). All these settings are controlled via electronic containers in the pipe via the fire control panel. The tubes have facilities in which, in addition to the settings for activating the aerodynamic brakes, the detonator in the submunition is controlled and the rocket motor is started.

Missiles

A Yugoslav KB-1 submunition from a total of 288 bomblets from Hurricane M-87

The rockets are swirl and wing stabilized and have a folding tail at the rear of the rocket. The rockets have a caliber of 262 mm, are 4.65 to 4.90 m long, depending on the type, and weigh 380 to 404 kg. They are driven by a two-stage solid - rocket engine . This has a burn time of 5 seconds and accelerates the rockets to a speed of around 1,200 m / s. After launch, the missile trajectory describes a ballistic curve with a maximum apogee of 22 km. The maximum shooting distance of 50 km is covered in 110 seconds. The minimum shooting distance is 12 km. The maximum spread of a rocket volley is 220 m in flight direction and 175 m in azimuth .

The KB-1 fragmentation warheads - the only ones produced for the hurricane system - were destroyed on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina when the country joined the Anti-Cluster Munitions Convention on September 7, 2010. 500 M-87 missiles were shipped from Bosnia to Georgia for further destruction in 2006. SFOR had also recycled numerous M-87 missiles as part of the program to reduce weapons stocks in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 27 M-87 missiles of the Hurricane system remaining in Croatia are to be disposed of by 2018 due to the signing for the destruction of cluster ammunition. The remaining stocks in Iraq were also rendered harmless by the US Army Engineering and Support Center . Of the former Yugoslav republics that own or have had M-87 hurricane systems, only Serbia has not signed the protocol on the destruction of cluster ammunition.

The following types of missiles are known:

  • M-87-ICM-AT with 288 pieces shaped charge - bomblets of the type KB-1; Range 50 km
  • M-87-AT (KPOM / KPTM / KRTM / YU-S-AT) with 24 anti- tank mines of the type YU-S-AT (KPOM - "kasetna protiv oklopna mina") with magneto ; Range 50 km

Chemical warheads

According to the ICG (International Crisis Group), the hurricane missiles were further developed in a variant with chemical warheads at the request of Iraq.

Calls

Iraq

Of the units produced for Iraq, four vehicles and 1,000 missiles were exported in 1988. These were used in 1988 at Basra and in 1991/92 in the First Gulf War.

Yugoslavia and Albania

Another eight fully assembled vehicles for Iraq at the Bratstvo plant in Novi Travnik were no longer delivered due to the UN embargo against the country. These vehicles reached the Croatian territorial forces in Bosnia in 1993 without missiles. Four vehicles were handed over to the armed forces of Croatia, four remained with the armed forces of the Bosnian Muslims. The test prototype, which had been used to train Iraqi soldiers in Zadar, came to the Krajina Serb armed forces in 1991. During the war in Bosnia and Croatia, they had a complete weapon system via the missiles stored in the UNIS-Pretis plant in Vogošča (Sarajevo) and exported to Iraq. The Krajina hurricane was also used militarily. The operation of the Krajina hurricane against the city of Zagreb on May 2 and 3, 1995 was punished by the ICTY as a war crime. Seven civilians were killed and over 200 injured. The Serb leader Milan Martić was found guilty of the shelling of the war crime.

The armed forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia did not have any of the original weapons systems produced for Iraq (the Yugoslav People's Army had not ordered the M-87 hurricane, the development of which was not yet completed), but the Military Technical Institute had four test tubes, including four tubes in 1995 of the Krajina hurricane were added. In 1997 this resulted in Hurricane II. In April and until the end of May 1999, these were used during acts of war on the border with Albania (Kukës, Tropojë and Has). For the first time, the 125th Motorized Brigade of the Yugoslav Army (Commander Dragan Živanović) used Hurricane II on April 13, 1999 at the Košara border post against KLA training camps in Tropojë and Has in Albania. In the Battle of the Paštrik at the end of May 1999, Albanian territory was shelled at depths of up to 17.5 km by the 549th Motorized Brigade of the VJ (Commander Božidar Delić).

User states

Current

  • SerbiaSerbia Serbia - Three M-87 Hurricane II
  • Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina - An M-87 hurricane (on the territory of the Republika Srpska, from which four pipes were dismantled)

Former

  • Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina - Four M-87 hurricanes. In accordance with the Convention on the Prohibition of Cluster Ammunition, Bosnia and Herzegovina had completely destroyed their inventory of 75,000 KB-1 submunitions by 2011. Likewise, 56 remaining rockets of the hurricane were dismantled.
  • IraqIraq Iraq - Four M-87 hurricanes. This first tranche was delivered in 1988. A total of 4 batteries of 4 vehicles each and a total of 4,000 rockets had been ordered.
  • CroatiaCroatia Croatia - Four M-87 hurricanes. Two exhibited in museums.

interested persons

  • GeorgiaGeorgia Georgia - In 2005–2008, Georgia attempted to purchase the M-87 launchers and missiles stored in Bosnia. It is controversial whether 500 missiles were exported as reported at the 558th OSCE plenary session.
  • KuwaitKuwait Kuwait - 24 vehicles and 24,000 missiles were ordered in 1990. Not realized by the Iraqi attack on Kuwait and the Bosnian War in 1992.
  • MalaysiaMalaysia Malaysia - Malaysia had provided Bosnia and Herzegovina with a US $ 100 million loan in development aid to finance the resumption of production of the weapons system. 20 vehicles and the technical documentation should be delivered. Due to disagreements between the Bosnian and Serbian delegations, the insufficient number of engineers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the sluggish possibilities for implementation, the negotiations did not produce any result.
  • United StatesUnited States United States - According to Anastas Paligorić , the United States offered 25 million US dollars for a system with ten missiles. This was intended to analyze the capabilities of the system before the war against Iraq.

Preserved copies

After the IFOR had confiscated the remaining hurricane systems from the order of Iraq in the Bratstvoer Maschinenbauwerk in 1996, which were destroyed in 1997 by SFOR on the military training area of ​​Glamoč, only a few functioning copies of the rocket launcher remained. The Croatian armed forces had two copies, one of which can be seen today as an exhibit in Vukovar in the Domovinsky Council Museum. All other originally produced hurricane systems are now taken out of service.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Human Rights Watch - Timeline of Cluster Munition Use (PDF) - Note in the Iraqi Army as Ababil 50
  2. Overview of Cluster Munitions in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia Prepared by Human Rights Watch (PDF)
  3. VTI - Seventh Decade of the Military Technical Institute (1948. - 2013.) (PDF)
  4. ^ Fears over Serbia's poison gas factories
  5. Vucurovic.com ( Memento from April 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed: March 26, 2013 (English)
  6. Interview with Obrad Vučurović in the Odbrana, 69, August 1, 2008: 8–12 Istina o Orkanu
  7. Ababil-100 / Al Fatah
  8. Ababil-100 / Al-Samoud
  9. ^ Arming Saddam - The Yugoslav Connection
  10. Interview with Obrad Vučurović in the Odbrana, 69, August 1, 2008: 8–12 Istina o Orkanu
  11. ^ Addendums to the Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD. (PDF)
  12. a b c d rbase.new-factoria.ru , accessed: March 26, 2013 (Russian)
  13. ibid Odbrana, 69, here p. 9.
  14. ibid Odbrana, 69, here p. 9.
  15. ibid Odbrana, 69, here p. 9.
  16. Transcript of the ICTY Martic Case
  17. ibid Odbrana, 69, here p. 10.
  18. The 8th International Armament Fair "Partner" opens.
  19. RTS, June 27, 2017 "Партнер 2017" у знаку нових ракета и артиљерије.
  20. Janes, February 22, 2017 IDEX 2017: Yugoimport unveils 'giant Grad' rocket ( Memento from August 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  21. Yugoimport SDPR - САМОХОДНО ВИШЕЦЕВНО МОДУЛАРНО ЛАНСИРНО ОРУЂЕ “ШУМАДИЈА“
  22. ^ Yugoimport from Serbia introduces new artillery systems in the Asian market
  23. Jane's 360 ° Fire power from Serbia SOFEX18D2
  24. ORKAN U ŠUMADIJI: Kadrovi HDZ-a BiH, preko Vitezita, naoružavali Srbiju!
  25. Military-today.com , accessed: March 26, 2013 (English)
  26. Website of the Serbian Armed Forces ( Memento from September 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed: March 26, 2013 (Serbian)
  27. ibid. Odbrana, 69 8-13
  28. a b Army-Guide.com , accessed: March 26, 2013 (English)
  29. Military-today.com , accessed: March 26, 2013 (English)
  30. Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, July 31, 2015 Bosnia and Herzegovina
  31. UN Report on Export of Missiles Bosnia and Herzegovina
  32. ^ Erwin Kauer: Weapons Collection and Destruction Programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (PDF)
  33. ^ Cluster Munitions Ban Policy - Croatia.
  34. US Army Corps of Engineers: CAPTURED ENEMY AMMUNITION AND COALITION MUNITIONS CLEARANCE MISSION 2003-2008. (PDF)
  35. http://www.cat-uxo.com/#/submunitions/4572070374 Submunition KPOM
  36. http://bulletpicker.com/pdf/Iraq%20Ordnance%20ID%20Guide.pdf Iraq odrdnance guide. P. 648.
  37. ^ ICG Balkans Report N ° 136, December 3, 2002 - Arming Saddam: the Yugoslav Connection Yugoslav connection.
  38. ^ Summery judgment of Milan Martic.
  39. https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/109182/Full-text.pdf UNIDIR - Cluster Munitions in Albania. P. 7.
  40. https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/109182/Full-text.pdf p. 20.
  41. ^ The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS): The Military Balance 2018 . 1st edition. Routledge, London 2018, ISBN 978-1-85743-955-7 , pp. 143 (English).
  42. ^ Cluster Munitions Monitor 2011. Mines Action Canada. ISBN 978-0-9738955-9-9 , p. 71.
  43. 558th plenary session of the OSCE
  44. Odbrana, 69, p. 9.
  45. Odbrana, 69, p. 9.
  46. Odbrana, 69, p. 9