Box 191 Fire leads us into the multi-domain strike
Recently, the domestic PHL191 box-type long-range rocket launcher has been frequently unveiled, indicating that the box fire has been equipped with troops in batches. PHL03 long-range fire has gloriously completed its historical mission and is about to retire after success. The Chinese Army's firepower strike is upgrading and transforming from a "long-range strike" to a "multi-domain strike", and the strike capability has taken another leap.
In the 80s of the last century, the Chinese army and related units began to develop domestic long-range rocket artillery, but progress has not been made in key technologies such as strapdown inertial navigation and precision guidance, and the project is in a state of stagnation. In the 90s, the relevant units decided to take advantage of the favorable opportunity to introduce foreign advanced technology and accelerate the development of domestic Yuanhuo. In 1996, China and Russia reached an agreement to introduce Russia's BM-30 Tornado long-range rocket launcher, guided rockets, terminal sensitive bombs and other technologies. In 2003, the design of the domestically produced PHL03 long-range rocket launcher was finalized and delivered to the troops, and the Chinese Army's long-range firepower strike capability took a leap.
PHL03 Long-Range Fire allows us to enter the era of long-range strikes
According to external information, the PHL03 long-range rocket launcher is equipped with 12 directional tubes, arranged in the same way as the BM-30 Tornado, arranged in the shape of "п", that is, there are 4 launch tubes on each side in the shape of a zigzag, and there are 4 more launch tubes arranged in a zigzag shape on it. Launches improvised guided rockets with a maximum range of 130 km. Judging by the information provided by the Russian side, the BM-30 Tornado's rocket can only achieve one-dimensional ballistic correction, that is, longitudinal correction, and the firing accuracy is relatively limited. In addition, it is equipped with terminal sensitive shells and adopts a multi-line array, which can attack high-value point targets such as tanks and self-propelled guns. However, the detection ability and anti-interference ability are poor.
Russia's BM-30 Tornado rocket launcher, which once led the global trend of long-range fire, is now dying
There is news that the PHL03 long-range rocket artillery is widespread in the Chinese army artillery units, and it is reported that the Chinese army artillery is equipped with more than 200 PHL03 long-range rocket launchers, which has become the main force of artillery long-range strikes. After the PHL03 long-range rocket launcher was installed, the relevant Chinese units continued to use the latest domestic technological achievements to improve it, such as equipping it with domestic precision-guided rockets, realizing two-dimensional trajectory correction, higher hitting accuracy, and increasing the range to 160 kilometers. The terminal sensitive bomb has also been upgraded to an infrared imaging/millimeter wave composite detection system, and the detection ability and anti-jamming ability have been doubled.
Tornado rocket artillery is still reloaded with a direction finder for a longer period of time
However, after all, the PHL03 long-range rocket launcher was born out of the Soviet design in the 80s, and some birth defects were gradually exposed in use. First of all, modularity is not realized, and then it is difficult to reload. The BM-30 is still loaded one by one with directional tubes, and due to the large size and weight of the rocket, the reloading is slow and takes a long time, and it is easy to be detected and hit by the opponent. Rockets are guided simply, with limited accuracy improvement, low degree of digitization and information, and it is difficult to achieve network-centric warfare. Without a co-launch system, it cannot launch tactical ballistic missiles, and it cannot meet the needs of multi-domain combat missions.
From the experience of the war in Ukraine, the BM-30 Tornado rocket launcher is not as good as the United States Hymars rocket artillery, the main reason is that modular, digital, precision guidance and other key technologies are not as good as the latter. In particular, the Hymars rocket launcher integrates ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles, with a range of 160 km (up to 300 km, but the United States has imposed performance restrictions on the Ukrainian Hymars rocket launcher), and the initial multi-domain strike capability. This leads to a problem, that is, the strike range of the Ukrainian army's Hymars rocket artillery completely covers the BM-30 Tornado rocket artillery. The Russia Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile can suppress the Hymars/ATACMS, but it belongs to a surface-to-surface missile brigade and Russia artillery cannot command. Therefore, the Russian army had to delegate the Iskander M tactical ballistic missiles to the artillery brigade and use expensive tactical ballistic missiles against the Hymars.
The domestic WM-80 rocket launcher is undergoing reloading operations, and the speed is much faster
In fact, we are more inclined to Western rocket artillery such as Hymars on the road of long-range fire development. As early as the 80s of the last century, we developed the WM-80 long-range rocket artillery, which initially realized modularization, realized the integration of launch / transport, and the overall hoisting of the launch / transport box. In the new century, China has made rapid progress in the fields of information technology, precision machining, advanced materials, and precision guidance, so the new-generation box-type rocket artillery has abandoned the Russian-style design and turned to the development of a "multifunctional firepower launch system" that integrates the East and the West, so as to have the capability of "multi-domain strike."
The domestic 155 mm terminal sensitive bomb adopts a three-mode composite guidance system
The biggest feature of the domestic PHL191 box-type rocket launcher is that it is modular and can launch rockets of various calibers, including 300 mm and 370 mm. The 370-mm rocket has a range of almost 300 kilometers and a warhead weight of 180 kg. This is already comparable to the ATACMS missile, which (M39A1) has a warhead weight of 300 kg at a range of 174 km.
The domestic 370 mm rocket not only has a long range, but also has a very high accuracy. It uses strapdown inertial navigation and Beidou satellite correction. At a range of 300 km, the accuracy of the hit also reaches 30 meters. If terminal guidance is equipped, the accuracy of the hit will be further improved. Due to the increase in diameter, the domestic 370 mm rocket can also accommodate more terminal sensitive shells. The new generation of domestic terminal sensitive bombs has a diameter of 150 mm and adopts a three-mode composite guidance system, so the 370 mm rockets can be stacked together to improve the efficiency of ammunition delivery and increase the damage capacity.
PHL191箱式发射国产战术弹道导弹
The most important thing is that the PHL191 box-type rocket launcher can launch domestic short-range tactical ballistic missiles, the missile range can reach 500 km, the warhead weight is close to 500 kg, and the hit accuracy can also reach 30 meters. These indicators are comparable to Russia's Iskander-M short-range tactical ballistic missile. In other words, 1 PHL191 box rocket launcher is equivalent to 1 BM-30 long-range rocket launcher, 1 Conqueror 360 missile launcher, 1 Iskander M missile launcher. In the future, domestic short-range tactical ballistic missiles can be further upgraded, and one medium-range ballistic missile launcher may be added.
To sum up, we can know that the PHL191 box-type long-range rocket launcher has excellent performance and combat efficiency is doubled compared to PHL03 long-range fire. In this way, the PHL03 Yuanhuo has indeed reached the time of successful retirement, and will gradually withdraw from the Chinese Army artillery combat sequence in the near future.