Katyusha (BM-13 multiple rocket launcher)
Katiusha (lanzacohetes múltiple BM-13)
- Date
- 1939-1941 · confidence high
- Place
- Moscow, Russia
- Credited to
- Reactive Scientific Research Institute RNII (Georgy Langemak, Ivan Kleymenov)
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
A rail rack on a truck that fires salvos of sixteen 132 mm rockets in seconds, saturating an area with fire. It was first used at Orsha (14 July 1941) and was the Soviet Union's most famous rocket artillery of the war.
Langemak and Kleymenov, creators of the RS-82/RS-132 rocket, were executed in 1938 during the purges; the name 'Katyusha' comes from a popular song.
What it led to
- the Grad and MLRS multiple rocket launchers
- saturation artillery
- Soviet combat rocketry