Valkirii
Valkirii ( Afrikaans : Walküre ) is a South African multiple rocket launcher in the 127 mm caliber.
history
At the end of the 1970s, the South African military (SADF) had to respond to the threat posed by Soviet- style rocket launchers such as the BM-21 . The result was the "Valkirii". The system was first used on the border with Angola in 1982 .
Special
The 24-barrel Valkirii was mounted on the chassis of a standard 4- ton Unimog truck. The missiles are fired from the sides of the vehicle. The fire system is covered by a canopy. This makes aerial reconnaissance of a Valkirii position difficult , as the vehicles appear to be normal trucks when viewed from the air. A 40-barrel turret on a 6-t vehicle is being planned.
The rocket
When designing the rocket, the South African developers attached great importance to the largest possible effective area. Each high-explosive warhead contains 8500 steel balls and is intended for use against soft and semi-hard targets. A rocket has an effective area of 1500 m². The rocket itself is a fin-stabilized solid rocket. The possible shooting distance is between 8 and 22 km. A missile with increased range (35 km) with an improved warhead (10,000 fragments) is in preparation.
Technical specifications
- Caliber: 127 mm
- Weight of the thrower: 6400 kg
- Length of the rocket: 2.68 m
- Weight of the rocket: 53.5 kg
- Warhead: 18 kg, highly explosive, splinters
- Rocket flight speed: 250 m / s
- Max. Range: 22,700 m
literature
- Ian Hogg : 20th Century Artillery. Gondrom Verlag, Bindlach 2001, ISBN 3-8112-1878-6 .