#Type 63 multiple rocket launcher

[tanksandbeyond]

A Type 70 MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System), late 1980s.

The Chinese Type 70 MLRS is a rocket artillery version of the Type 63 APC, carrying 19 tubes of 130mm rockets. Development of this variant lasted about 10 months, finishing in November of 1970, with trials beginning the following year with 18 test vehicles being delivered to the 1st Tank Division of the People's Liberation Army. After receiving improvements, it would finally be named the Type 70 130 mm self-propelled rocket launcher in 1977. Mass production began in 1979 ended soon after, resulting in only 244 being produced. It most notably saw combat in Vietnam during the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979.

Fun fact: According to Veteran recollections of this vehicle, it was used sparingly, as it cost 500 Yuan for one rocket. If the entire battalion fired all of their rockets, that is, 18 Type 70s firing 19 rockets each, it would cost well over $100,000 USD today!

[cyberbenb]

6 killed, 36 injured in Russian attacks against Ukraine over past day

At least 6 people were killed and 36 others injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day, regional officials reported on March 22.

Ukraine’s Air Force intercepted 100 of 179 Russian drones launched overnight, including Shahed-type attack drones. Another 63 drones reportedly disappeared from radars before reaching their targets, likely acting as decoys to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses.

Ukrainian aviation, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare systems and mobile fire groups repelled the attack.

In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, a family of three were killed in the Shakhed drone attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, including a 14-year-old girl and her parents, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported. Twelve more people were wounded.

“Russia has once again killed a 14-year-old child in Zaporizhzhia with a Shakhed. Russia must stop all strikes,” wrote the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, on March 22.

Two people were killed in Kostiantynivka and Fedorivka in Donetsk Oblast due to Russian shelling, Governor Vadym Filashkin said. Nine more people were wounded. In total, Russian forces shelled the settlements 22 times on March 21.

In Kherson Oblast, one person was killed and fourteen were injured as Russian forces shelled residential areas, and social facilities, according to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a 14-year-old boy was wounded in a drone attack near Mezhova, Governor Serhii Lysak reported. Russia also attacked Marhanets with Grad multiple rocket launchers, heavy artillery and drones, damaging local entreprises and residential houses.

Russia also shelled Mykolaiv, Sumy,  Kharkiv and Kyiv oblasts over the past day, according to local authorities.

Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia kills 3, injures 12

Russia attacked the city of Zaporizhzhia on the evening of March 21, killing three people, regional governor Ivan Fedorov reported. The rescue operation concluded at around 1:00 a.m. local time.

The Kyiv IndependentOlena Goncharova

[riverinthecloud-blog]

Chinese type 70 multiple rocket launcher. Developed from 1970 to 1977 with the chassis of Chinese Type 63 armored personnel carrier and Chinese 130 mm multiple rocket launcher.

Location: residential sector of China North Vehicle Research Institute, Beijing, China

[payaltest-blog]

Heavy Weapons And Surface To Air Missiles Captured From The 46th Regiment Base

Today we've seen a number of reports about the capture of the 46th Regiment base west of Aleppo, after two months of fighting around the base.  EA Worldview has a summary of the events, which includes these claims

Rebel fighters took control of the 46th regiment in the western suburb of Aleppo, the last bastion of regime forces in the area and the biggest military base where its artillery and tanks used to bombard the surrounding towns and villages as well as the city of Aleppo. The base also was the main reinforcement’s source to regime forces fighting in Aleppo city. The rebels acquired more than ten military tanks and a number of rocket launchers, heavy artillery in addition to a big quantity of arms and ammunition.

Al Jazeera also had this report

Several Youtube channels have been posting footage from the battle, as well as footage of what was captured, including atareb mohrara, atarebintoheart, freenorthernsyria, and atarebsyfree2012, and from those channels we can see a great deal of equipment was looted. For example, in the below video we see a captured T-55 tank driving away with a D-30 howitzer, with the howitzer's ammo pictured in this video

In this video we see multiple tanks, although from the quality of the video it's unclear if they are functional, or if they are all T-55s

In the below video we briefly see a BTR-60 in the background, along with what appears to be the T-55 shown towing D-30 in the first video, which can be seen clearly in this second video of the scene shot from behind the tank.

These videos show six Type-63 multiple rocket launchers, which I've written about in more detail here

There's also large amounts of crates containing a variety of ammo captured, and in these two videos we get a brief look at a SA-16 missile tube, along with it's battery

It appears that the stack of crates it's in, and the one behind it, are all the same kind of crate, matching the crates seen in the video of SA-24s and SA-16s captured in the Bala Air Defense Base in East Ghouta, outside of Damascus.  It should be noted that as with many surface to air missile systems captured by the opposition it appears there are no gripstocks, which are required for the operation of the missile systems alongside the battery and missile tube. Finally in this video we see trucks loaded up with crates, apparently looted from the ammo dumps, and even a brief glimpse of what looks like the ends of the SA-16 crates at 16s into the video, just on the right hand side

It appears that the Syrian opposition has managed to capture a large amount of heavy weapons with plenty of ammo in this attack, and we may see in coming days these weapons in action around Aleppo. Related Articles Video Shows Captured SA-16 And SA-24 Surface To Air Missiles Unexploded Cluster Bomblets Repurposed As DIY Rocket Warheads Unexploded Bombs Used In A Truck Bomb By Jabhat al-Nusra Clear Evidence Of DIY Barrel Bombs Being Used By The Syrian Air Force Cluster Bomb Usage Rises Significantly Across Syria A Beginner's Guide To Identifying UXO In Syria You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com

[payaltest-blog]

Improving Syrian Oppositon Armaments Demonstrated During The Taftanaz Airbase Attack

Early this morning Syrian opposition fighters began a co-ordinated assault on Taftanaz air base in the Idlib Governorate, used as a base for a significant number of Syrian Air Force helicopters operating in the surrounding area.  Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons reported on the fighting

One of the interesting aspects of the operation was the use of a variety of much heavier weapons than we've generally seen used in the conflict so far.  To start with we have videos of the common ZU-23-2 auto-cannons and KPV heavy machine guns being used as anti-aircraft weapons

Not so unusual, nor is this mortar being used to attack the air base

But what we also see are at least one Type-63 multiple rocket launcher being deployed, firing a volley of five 107mm rockets with a range of up to 8km in this video

We also see the increasingly common DIY rockets being fired at the airport

But what's very interesting is the use at least one T-55 tank in the operation

So far in the conflict we've only seen a handful of occasions where tanks and other armoured vehicles have been used in combat, no doubt because of the risk of using them without air cover, so it's interesting to see a T-55 being used in an attack where the Syrian Air Force wouldn't have that far to travel to find an attacking tank.  Maybe this suggests the opposition are becoming more confident in using anti-aircraft weapons to defend their more vulnerable weapons.   In conclusion we see that the following weapons were used in the attack:

ZU-23-2 auto-cannon

KPV heavy machine gun

Type-63 multiple rocket launcher

T-55 tank

DIY rockets

Mortars

Quite a variety of weapons, and seems to demonstrate how the opposition are becoming increasingly well armed as the conflict continues. 

Related Articles The Syrian Opposition's Latest Missiles and Rockets  The DIY Weapons Of The Syrian Opposition

The Free Syrian Army's DIY Rocket Workshop 

The Latest Weapons Of The Free Syrian Army

A Rough Guide To Syria's Tanks

The FSA Captures An Unusual Weapon

You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com

[payaltest-blog]

NPR Interview - Variety Of Weapons Increases In Syrian Conflict - Additional Information

This morning NPR broadcast an interview I took part in discussing the weapons being used in Syria, and in this post I hope to expand on some of the points discussed. At the start of the interview I explain how tanks are being sent in with poor infantry support, making them vulnerable to RPG attacks, something that is demonstrated perfectly in this video film in the Hanano area of Aleppo in July

In this video we see the opposition fighters spotting a tank parked not too far from the corner they are hiding behind, followed by them waiting 5 minutes for another fighter with an RPG to show up, all the time seemingly unconcerned about being attacked by infantry. After that we discuss weapons that have recently been spotted with the opposition, in particular multi-barreled rocket launchers, specifically Type-63's, which I wrote about at more length here.  I should point out when I said they had a range of 8 milies I actually meant 8 kilometers.  This example shows a slightly unusual example of a Type-63 that hasn't been mounted on a truck

As I say in the interview there's ample examples of weapons and ammunition being looted in great quantities, for example in this video we see Type-63 rocket launchers at a checkpoint recently captured by the opposition, and later boxes of ammunition being looted. In this following video we see another example of a huge amount of weapons and ammunition captured in an attack by opposition forces, including ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns and a partial SA-7 surface to air missile system

You can read more about the weapons used by the opposition in my article for Foreign Policy, Syria's DIY Revolt, and more about SA-7s in CJ Chivers article Heat-Seeking Missiles in Syria: The SA-7 in Action with Rebels. I also discussed the use of giant slingshots to launch pipebombs, and this video shows an unexploded bomb being harvested for explosives used in these pipebombs

And this videos demonstrates that giant slingshots aren't always the safest weapon in the opposition arsenal

This post details some of the other DIY weapons used by the opposition. Finally we went over the escalation in the air war, a topic recently examined by the Institute for the Study of War in their recent overview of the Syrian Air Force.  I examine the different weapons being used in Syria in a piece written shortly before the upsurge in cluster bomb use, The Weapons Of The Syrian Air Force, and look at the use of cluster bombs in Cluster Bomb Usage Rises Significantly Across Syria. Related Articles Cluster Bomb Usage Rises Significantly Across Syria Collected ODAB Thermobaric Bomb Evidence A Beginner's Guide To Identifying UXO In Syria The Mystery Of The Syrian Barrel Bombs New Bomb Identified In Syria The Weapons Of The Syrian Air Force  You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com

[payaltest-blog]

The Syrian Opposition's Latest Missiles and Rockets

In the last couple of weeks there's been much written about the Syrian military's latest escalation, the use of cluster bombs, but at the same time the Syrian armed opposition* appears to have been having an escalation of their own.  Aside from increased sightings and the apparent use of SA-7 surface to air missiles by the armed opposition, as reported by CJ Chivers in the New York Times At War Blog, there's also been a sudden increase in videos showing two other kinds of weapons being used.

Type 63 multiple rocket launcher

In recent weeks a number of videos have been posted from locations across Syria, including Hama, Rastan, Idlib, and Lattakia, showing truck mounted Type 63 multiple rocket launchers being used by the armed opposition. Type 63s are generally towed rocket launcher, firing 107mm rockets, manufactured in China, but licensed for manufacture in a number of other countries, including Iran and Turkey.  With a range of 8km it would be one of the longest range weapons in the armed opposition's armoury, and the below video from 7:20 shows an example of the launchers being captured by the armed opposition

9K115-2 Metis-M

The 9K115-2 Metis-M (NATO reporting name AT-13 Saxhorn-2) is a Russian anti-tank missile system, with a 2km and SACLOS wire guided targeting system.  While the system has been spotted on very rare occasion before in Syria, notably an air base attack in March 2012, it appears in the last two weeks there's been a sudden increase in videos showing the systems, for example this video and this video from Idlib, and the below example from Hama, showing the missile being fired, and apparently hitting it's target

The Syrian Army's vehicle's wouldn't stand much of a chance against these system, especially with their range compared to the RPG rockets they are used to going up against, so if their use becomes widespread it seems likely the Syrian Army will face a great number of tank loses. * Personally I prefer the term Syrian armed opposition as it covers all armed groups, and I feel the term "FSA" is now rather inaccurate as some armed groups in Syria aren't part of the actual Free Syrian Army, and "rebels" wouldn't accurately reflect the presence of foreign fighters, many of which are Jihadists, in Syria.

Related Articles The DIY Weapons Of The Syrian Opposition

The Free Syrian Army's DIY Rocket Workshop 

The Latest Weapons Of The Free Syrian Army

How Not To Handle Unexploded Ordnance - A Syrian Top Ten 

The FSA Captures An Unusual Weapon

You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com