Artillery
Brief History of PLA's Type 83 273mm Multiple Launch Rocket System
China Defense.com
Image Archive DVD
42,000+ Images
Webhosting provided by:
Brief History of PLA's
Type 83 273mm
Multiple Rocket Launcher System
by Leon Ing
In the late 1950s, No.123 Manufacturing Plant began its own large caliber multiple rocket launcher (MRL) development. This project, like many other military projects was severely disrupted in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution. It was not until 1978 that major development efforts resumed on the project. In 1984, the plant finally rolled out the 273mm caliber MRL and designated as the Type 83 273mm MRL.
The launcher assembly carries 4 rockets, and is mounted on a Type 60 artillery tractor for mobility. The rockets are free-flight, spin-and-fin stabilized rockets, and do not have guidance systems. As a result, the Type 83’s accuracy especially in term of directional (azimuth) dispersion is much lower than other projectile weapon systems such as traditional tube artillery guns. Rocket system accuracy had always been a major weakness and technical bottleneck. Thus, this was the main area where the designers concentrated their development efforts.
The rocket of the 273mm MRL has a range of 40km with a 138kg warhead. In pursuing specifications set out for the system, the designers had adopted a series of rocket design features. These features included:
As for the launch platform, improvements were made to its structural design. These included reinforcing the launcher structural members to increase rigidity, and reducing launcher interference with the rocket body's initial flight. However, despite all these measures the overall system performance was not satisfactory with regard to accuracy, and in tests did not demonstrate an acceptable level of performance.
