Rocket launcher

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Missile launcher
)
For other uses, see Rocket launcher (disambiguation).
M1 Bazooka
during World War II

A rocket launcher is a weapon that launches an unguided, rocket-propelled projectile.

History

Main article: History of rockets
Rocket carts from the Wubei Zhi
A depiction of a 'long serpent' rocket launcher from the Wubei Zhi
An Edo period wood block print showing samurai gunners firing bo-hiya with hiya-zutsu (fire arrow guns).

The earliest rocket launchers documented in

Southern Song Dynasty, including military developments since the original 1044 publication. The British scientist, sinologist, historian Joseph Needham asserts that the 1510 edition is the most reliable in its faithfulness to the original and 1231 versions, since it was printed from blocks that were re-carved directly from tracings of the edition made in 1231 AD.) The 1510 Wujing Zongyao describes the "long serpent" rocket launcher, a rocket launcher constructed of wood and carried with a wheelbarrow, and the "hundred tiger" rocket launcher, a rocket launcher made of wood and capable of firing 320 rocket arrows.[2] The text also describes a portable rocket carrier consisting of a sling and a bamboo tube.[3]

Rocket launchers known as "wasp nest" launchers were used by the

Zhu Di.[4]

Rockets were introduced to the

Sir William Congreve in 1804 after experiencing Indian rockets at the Siege of Seringapatam (1799). Congreve rockets were launched from an iron trough about 18 inches (45 centimetres) in length, called a chamber.[5] These chambers could be fixed to the ground for horizontal launching, secured to a folding copper tripod for high angle fire or mounted on frames on carts or the decks of warships.[6]

The collection of the royal armies includes man portable rocket launchers that appear (based on lock designs) to date from the two decades after 1820.[7] These don't appear to have entered general use and no surviving documentation on them has been found.[7]

During the American Civil War, both the US and the Confederate militaries experimented upon and produced rocket launchers.[8] Confederate forces used Congreve rockets in limited uses due to its inaccuracies, while the US forces used Hale patent rocket launcher which fired seven to ten inch rockets with fin stabilizers at a range of 2,000 yards (6,000 ft).

World War II

ZiS-6
truck.

Pre-war research programmes into military rocket technology by many of the major powers led to the introduction of a number of

Soviet's Katyusha was a self-propelled system, being mounted on trucks, tanks and even trains. The United States Army deployed the tank mounted T34 Calliope system late in the war.[9]

Types

Shoulder-fired

Main article: Shoulder-fired missile

The rocket launchers category includes shoulder-fired weapons, any weapon that fires a rocket-propelled projectile at a target yet is small enough to be carried by a single person and fired while held on one's shoulder. Depending on the country or region, people might use the terms "

anti-tank weapon which was in service from 1942 to 1957, while the RPG (most commonly the RPG-7) is a Soviet
anti-tank weapon.

A smaller variation is the

small arms rocket launcher with ammunition slightly larger than that of a .45-caliber
pistol.

Recoilless rifles are sometimes confused with rocket launchers. A recoilless rifle launches its projectile using an explosive powder charge, not a rocket engine, though some such systems have sustainer rocket motors.

Rocket pod

UB-32 rocket pods, each carrying thirty two S-5 rockets

A rocket pod is a launcher that contains several

aerodynamic drag. The first pods were developed immediately after World War II, as an improvement over the previous arrangement of firing rockets from rails, racks or tubes fixed under the wings of aircraft. Early examples of pod-launched rockets were the US Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket and the French SNEB.[10]

Large scale

Larger-scale devices which serve to launch rockets include the multiple rocket launcher, a type of unguided rocket artillery system.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-521-30358-3
    .
  2. ^ Needham 1974, p. 493
  3. ^ Needham 1974, p. 495
  4. ^ Needham 1974, p. 514.
  5. ^ Congreve, William (1814), The Details of the Rocket System J. Whiting, London (p. 19)
  6. ISBN 1-59114-029-3
    (p.177)
  7. ^ a b Jonathan Ferguson (23 January 2023). Who would want a flintlock rocket launcher? With firearms and weaponry expert Jonathan Ferguson. Royal Armouries. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  8. History
    . April 9, 2013.
  9. ISBN 978-1586637620
    (pp. 169-178)
  10. ^ Vectors Website - 7.0 Unguided Rockets.

External links

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