M-87 Orkan

M87 LRSV

Croatian M87 Orkan
Type Self-propelled multiple rocket launcher
Place of origin  Yugoslavia
Specifications
Weight 32t
Length 9 m (29 ft 6 in)
Width 2.64 m (8 ft 8 in)
Height 3.84 m (12 ft 7 in)
Crew 5

Main
armament
262 mm x 12
Orkan ll x 4
Speed 80 km/h (50 mph)

The M-87 Orkan is an Yugoslavian self-propelled multiple rocket launcher. The generic M-87 project was configured with 12 launch tubes mounted on FAP 2832 truck. It has a range of about 50km, able to deliver war heads, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Very few of these were ever built, The Orkan project was finished at a pre-production level in the early 90's.

Professor Obrad Vucurovic, Mechanical Engineer, Chief operating officer of the Artillery department of Military Technical Institute as project manager and chief engineer, developed and managed M-87 Orkan development.[1]

Serbia developed the M-96 Orkan II modification. The simplest solution was to integrate 4 262mm launch tubes on a ZIL-135 launcher as it required minimum investment. The basic purpose of these modified launchers can be restored.[2]

According to prof. Obrad Vucurovic, the chief operating officer of the Artillery department of Military Technical Institute Orkan was never a copy of any previous designs.[3] The Yugoslav ideology when developing the system was based on the premise that countries who copy designs are at least five years behind of those who have the weapons developed. Accordingly the Orkan is unique because it has the ability to disperse antitank or antipersonnel mines up to 50 km from the firing location. This example illustrates the forward thinking that went into designing Orkan.

The M-87 Orkan can disperse its ordinence up to 50km including:

Operators

Former operators

References