Designer NII 303 | In service 1952 - c.1990 (USSR) Designed 1951 | |
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Wars Algerian Civil WarVietnam WarDhofar RebellionWar in Afghanistan | ||
The BM-14 (BM for Boyevaya Mashina, 'combat vehicle'), is a Soviet-made 140mm multiple launch rocket system (MLRS), normally mounted on a truck.
Contents
The BM-14 can fire 140mm M-14 rockets with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead, a smoke warhead or a chemical warhead. It is similar to the BM-13 "Katyusha" and was partly replaced in service by the 122mm BM-21 Grad.
Launchers were built in 16 and 17-round variants. The rockets have a maximum range of 9.8 kilometers (6.1 mi).
The weapon is not accurate as there is no guidance system, but it is extremely effective in saturation fire.
Variants
Ammunition
The BM-14 launcher and its variants can fire 140mm rockets of the M-14-series (also called Soviet-made M14 artillery rockets). They have a minimum range of 3.8 kilometers (2.4 mi) and a maximum range of 9.8 kilometers (6.1 mi). The M-14 series consist of three known types:
Use
During the Syrian Civil War, a rocket engine from a 140 mm M-14-series rocket was identified on 26 August 2013 by the U.N. fact-finding mission in the Muadamiyat al-Sham district southwest of Damascus, allegedly originating from the chemical attack on Western Ghouta on 21 August 2013.
The rockets nozzle assembly had 10 jet nozzles ordered evenly in a circle with an electrical contact plate in the middle. The bottom ring of the rocket engine had the lot number "Г ИШ 4 25 - 6 7 - 179 К" engraved, which means it was produced in 1967 by factory 179 (Sibselmash plant in Novosibirsk). However, no warhead was observed at the impact site and none of the 13 environmental samples taken in the Western Ghouta area tested positive for sarin, although three had "degradation and/or by-products" possibly originating from sarin. On 18 September, the Russian Presidential Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov commented on the U.N. missions findings. He said "these rockets were supplied to dozens of countries", but that "the Soviet Union never supplied warheads with sarin to anyone". Another type of rockets was used in the Eastern Ghouta attack.