Other US MLRS Projects

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Good day everyone. I have a question, is there any unbuilt or other MLRS projects of the US Military beside M270 and HIMARS?
 
Apophenia said:
Do you mean 'Other US MLRS Projects' as in alternative rocket systems or in other launch platforms?

If the latter, LTV proposed a LW-MLRS consisting of a single AT2 launch pack (à la HIMARS, except exposed) mounted on Standard Manufacturing Co.'s Trailing Arm Drive vehicle.

-- https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/standard-manufacturing-co-excalibur.4814/#post-228265

-- https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/th...-himars-developments.39660/page-2#post-546380
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The first one.
 
Here's one: The Field Artillery Rocket System (FARS), studied in the early 1980s by the US Army and USMC. It was basically six LAU-10 Zuni 4-round, 5-inch rocket pods bolted to an elevating frame on a modified generator trailer. (This would not have been out of place in 2010 Libya.)


1677674644817.png

1677674680621.png

This apparently came at about the same time as an LTV proposal to put a 6-round MLRS pod on an LVT-7 (an amphibian HIMARS analogue 30 years early).

www.google.com

The Marine Corps Gazette

www.google.com

1677674955096.png
 
Last edited:
A bit more, from the FY 85 budget, on why they dropped FARS. Basically, Zuni rockets were badly suited to the task, the aerial fuzes didn't work well, and there was no submunition payload. So they wanted to adopt a lightweight MLRS (eventually HIMARS) along the same lines as desired by US Army light forces. This took another 15 years to actually implement...
https://www.google.com/books/editio...ystem" Zuni&pg=PA197-IA24&printsec=frontcover

1677677724424.png
 
TomS said:
A bit more, from the FY 85 budget, on why they dropped FARS. Basically, Zuni rockets were badly suited to the task, the aerial fuzes didn't work well, and there was no submunition payload. So they wanted to adopt a lightweight MLRS (eventually HIMARS) along the same lines as desired by US Army light forces. This took another 15 years to actually implement...
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Defense_Department_authorization_and_ove/lqMko_rhXIsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq="field Artillery Rocket System" Zuni&pg=PA197-IA24&printsec=frontcover

View attachment 694635
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Meanwhile France conceptualized a local HIMARS based on the AMX-10R chassis in 1988...
 
Elan Vital said:
TomS said:
A bit more, from the FY 85 budget, on why they dropped FARS. Basically, Zuni rockets were badly suited to the task, the aerial fuzes didn't work well, and there was no submunition payload. So they wanted to adopt a lightweight MLRS (eventually HIMARS) along the same lines as desired by US Army light forces. This took another 15 years to actually implement...
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Defense_Department_authorization_and_ove/lqMko_rhXIsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq="field Artillery Rocket System" Zuni&pg=PA197-IA24&printsec=frontcover

View attachment 694635
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Meanwhile France conceptualized a local HIMARS based on the AMX-10R chassis in 1988...
Click to expand...

To be fair, lots of alternative MLRS launchers got conceptualized. The link above about LW-MLRS and the Standard Manufacturing Company shows both a towed lightweight and a wheeled all-terrain vehicle version and LTV also proposed (informally) that LVTP-7 version and probably a truck-mounted version that eventually became HIMARS. Heck, a naval launcher was proposed as early as 1986.
 
TomS said:
Here's one: The Field Artillery Rocket System (FARS), studied in the early 1980s by the US Army and USMC. It was basically six LAU-10 Zuni 4-round, 5-inch rocket pods bolted to an elevating frame on a modified generator trailer. (This would not have been out of place in 2010 Libya.)


View attachment 694627

View attachment 694628

This apparently came at about the same time as an LTV proposal to put a 6-round MLRS pod on an LVT-7 (an amphibian HIMARS analogue 30 years early).

www.google.com

The Marine Corps Gazette

www.google.com

View attachment 694634
Click to expand...
Here's another one based on the Zuni...kind of. The XM130 Surface-Launched Fuel-Air Weapon, or SLUFAE. Now, that name may bring to mind the exceptionally nasty Russian TOS-1 "Buratino" rocket system that looks like it came right out of one of the old Command & Conquer games and/or its shoulder-fired cousins the RPO-A and RPO-M (all of which are thermobaric weapons, though the Russians categorize them as flamethrowers). But despite the connotations of the name and looking like a Nebelwerfer's bigger and uglier cousin, the SLUFAE was actually designed for rather benign purposes - albeit you still don't want to be downrange from it.

slufae.jpg

The SLUFAE was in fact built as a mine-clearing platform, and more or less made from parts already kicking around the Army/Air Force supply chain. Idea behind it is essentially the same as a MICLIC, clear a path through a minefield by detonating antipersonnel mines with overpressure from an explosive. Except where a MICLIC uses a rope of C4, the SLUFAE produces overpressure with repurposed propane fuel-air bombs (BLU-73/B). The system was based around a 30-tube launcher pod mounted on the back of an M548 cargo carrier (or according to some sources, the M752/688 launcher/carrier for the MGM-52 Lance, but both are just modified M113s), firing a CBU-55 propelled by a Zuni rocket motor.

UeCf0LB.jpg

Maximum range was somewhere between 700-1000m, but the accuracy was reportedly crap, on the order of plus/minus 20 meters in range and 8.5m lateral dispersion. The basic overpressure concept was found to be functional, but the fuel-air device had trouble with frozen or thawing ground impeding the blast wave. In a secondary role against unarmored area targets like troop formations, light vehicles and houses, the effects were...pretty much what you'd expect. Testing eventually showed that systems like Giant Viper were more practical than the gigantic XM130, and it was never put into production. A couple inert rockets are around in private collections and museums, and the launcher is in a storage yard at Redstone Arsenal.

Ky6SWYr.jpg
 
Ravinoff said:
Here's another one based on the Zuni...kind of. The XM130 Surface-Launched Fuel-Air Weapon, or SLUFAE. Now, that name may bring to mind the exceptionally nasty Russian TOS-1 "Buratino" rocket system that looks like it came right out of one of the old Command & Conquer games and/or its shoulder-fired cousins the RPO-A and RPO-M (all of which are thermobaric weapons, though the Russians categorize them as flamethrowers). But despite the connotations of the name and looking like a Nebelwerfer's bigger and uglier cousin, the SLUFAE was actually designed for rather benign purposes - albeit you still don't want to be downrange from it.

View attachment 694828

The SLUFAE was in fact built as a mine-clearing platform, and more or less made from parts already kicking around the Army/Air Force supply chain. Idea behind it is essentially the same as a MICLIC, clear a path through a minefield by detonating antipersonnel mines with overpressure from an explosive. Except where a MICLIC uses a rope of C4, the SLUFAE produces overpressure with repurposed propane fuel-air bombs (BLU-73/B). The system was based around a 30-tube launcher pod mounted on the back of an M548 cargo carrier (or according to some sources, the M752/688 launcher/carrier for the MGM-52 Lance, but both are just modified M113s), firing a CBU-55 propelled by a Zuni rocket motor.

View attachment 694831

Maximum range was somewhere between 700-1000m, but the accuracy was reportedly crap, on the order of plus/minus 20 meters in range and 8.5m lateral dispersion. The basic overpressure concept was found to be functional, but the fuel-air device had trouble with frozen or thawing ground impeding the blast wave. In a secondary role against unarmored area targets like troop formations, light vehicles and houses, the effects were...pretty much what you'd expect. Testing eventually showed that systems like Giant Viper were more practical than the gigantic XM130, and it was never put into production. A couple inert rockets are around in private collections and museums, and the launcher is in a storage yard at Redstone Arsenal.

View attachment 694833
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wonder if this creature deserves reconsideration
 
Scott Kenny said:
I honestly haven't heard of Zuni rockets getting fired in anger by US forces since Vietnam...
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Definitely as late as the Battle of Fallujah -- the Marines included Zunis in the standard load out for their F/A-18s in the airborne controller role (suggesting they were used for target marking more than direct attack, I think.)

MBDA and NAWCWD (China Lake) were showing off a guided version for specops customers as recently as 2010. The fact that it was even type-classified suggests (to me) it was pretty close to being in use by someone.

defensereview.com

MBDA Semi-Active Laser-Guided Zuni Rocket with 4-Shot LAU-10 Rocket Pod (Launch Pod): Precision-Guided Rockets Get a Big Boost (Photos!)

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com All photos contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and are copyrighted. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. The photos were shot with Canon PowerShot S90 10-megapixel digital camera (still camera with video...
defensereview.com defensereview.com
 
TomS said:
Definitely as late as the Battle of Fallujah -- the Marines included Zunis in the standard load out for their F/A-18s in the airborne controller role (suggesting they were used for target marking more than direct attack, I think.)

MBDA and NAWCWD (China Lake) were showing off a guided version for specops customers as recently as 2010. The fact that it was even type-classified suggests (to me) it was pretty close to being in use by someone.

defensereview.com

MBDA Semi-Active Laser-Guided Zuni Rocket with 4-Shot LAU-10 Rocket Pod (Launch Pod): Precision-Guided Rockets Get a Big Boost (Photos!)

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com All photos contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and are copyrighted. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. The photos were shot with Canon PowerShot S90 10-megapixel digital camera (still camera with video...
defensereview.com defensereview.com
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What a surprise, I would have expected Hydra 70s as the marker rockets...
 
jsport said:
wonder if this creature deserves reconsideration
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It would seem like the major issue for M1 tank & M2 IFV replacement would be the vehicles of the RSV Companies supporting these manned vehicles. A type of offset APS for the new conflict realities. A next generation MICLIC w/ longer range, smaller diameter but more explosive power line carrying charges msle/rkts.

the old Giant Viper but the right size guided missile form factor.
1694357064132.png
It might still be required to use large unmanned vehicle systems to assure there is no need follow on "proofing" currently accomplished by M1s w/ rollers after the plows.

tanks-encyclopedia.com

Cargo Carrier M548 with Surface-Launched Unit, Fuel Air Explosive (SLUFAE) - Tank Encyclopedia

The Surface-Launched Unit, Fuel Air Explosive (SLUFAE) was a prototype mine clearing device developed by the United States in the 1970s.
tanks-encyclopedia.com tanks-encyclopedia.com

The whole system could throw all 30 rockets in sequence which was capable of breaching an 8m wide path 900m long.

sets of 9xSLUFAE in relay sets of ~ 3 providing three direction routes and then this whole capability deployed in more than three major Avenues of Approach sectors would simply generate too many dilemmas for a defender regardless of there defensive lines. A defender would be facing cascading collapse into quick culmination, not in years, months, days but in hours.
 
As brand new production SLUFAE production would take likely years, even if there was the intent, the Python MICLIC system might deserve a look. It seems a little better than the current US MICLIC, although only 250m at time when 1km at time is needed presents logistics and rapidity problems. If not accomplished large and fast vehicles will become vulnerable.

lyndhurst-precision.co.uk

Minefield breaching device | Lyndhurst Precision

Device for the defence sector that allows troops to rapidly advance through booby-trapped areas.
lyndhurst-precision.co.uk lyndhurst-precision.co.uk

Although multi main axis (3-4) advances each w/3xdirection SLUFAE/Python (3 veh) relays would impart "paralysis of analysis" ie too many dilemma's for cogent counteroffensive the Python might work. The Ukr forces must mass enough at each main axis of advances to sufficiently overwatch the SLUFAEs/Pythons ie precision defensive counterbattery + counterfires to suppress trench lines full Hunter Killer ATGMs which are known to have up to 50 ATGMs available for each killer tm. (yikes), Even more importantly the Ukrs would have received and trained on large smke generation systems probably for a year.



PS: As pointed out in SLUFAE wiki, MICLICs effects can be drastically degraded by frozen ground.
 
tanks-encyclopedia.com

Cargo Carrier M548 with Surface-Launched Unit, Fuel Air Explosive (SLUFAE) - Tank Encyclopedia

The Surface-Launched Unit, Fuel Air Explosive (SLUFAE) was a prototype mine clearing device developed by the United States in the 1970s.
tanks-encyclopedia.com tanks-encyclopedia.com
The website claims only a single prototype was built.
This pic would seem to allude to at least two prototypes , the below shows an alternative prime mover was pursued.

Likewise, modern chemistry would allow rockets to be far more effective against plastic butterfly mines, and other newer booby traps, offset detonators and deeply stacked AT mines.

the korean mineplow can be remotely piloted from 5km away, making it an ideal SLUFAE follower, which might also need to remoted from a distance.
 

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TomS said:
There have been several proposed MRLs based on 70mm FFARs or Hydra 70 rockets.

Thread 'Rockets Launcher,70 mm RD-MRWS.(1980)' https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/rockets-launcher-70-mm-rd-mrws-1980.38544/
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The maximum speed is around a thousand meters per second (3,280.8 feet per second) and the range is over 15 kilometers (16,404 yards).

IMHO the current conflict and the use of the Vampire Arnold Defense 70mm highlights the need for a long range 70mm to match the high number of targets w/ a limited logistics MLRS.
 

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