Firos (artillery)

The Firos (FIROS) was an Italian multiple rocket launcher system developed during the Cold War. The 122 mm rockets were mounted on an armoured 6x6 truck (lorry) for mobility. The Firos vehicles were mounted with forty 122 mm long range rockets. The 122 mm rocket was designed as a surface-to-surface rocket.[1][2]

The first version developed was the Firos-25, some 125 of which were exported to the United Arab Emirates in the 1980s.[3] The more powerful Firos-30, with a range of over 30 km,[4] were built in the late 1980s, and entered into service with the Italian Army in 1987.[5]

The Firos were similar to the Russian BM-21 Grad in that they both used 122 mm rockets in groups of forty, although they differed considerably in command and control systems and base vehicle.

Notes

  1. ↑ "FIROS-25". The International Magazine of Armies and Weapons. Year VI – Volume V: 30–31. 1978.
  2. ↑ Sawhney, R. G. (1984). "Field Artillery Today and Tomorrow". Strategic Analysis 7 (11): 928–941. doi:10.1080/09700168409428662.
  3. ↑ By 2006 the UAE still had 98 of them operational. Cordesman, Anthony H. and Al-Rodhan, Khalid R. (2007). Gulf Military Forces in an Era of Asymmetric Wars, Volume 1. Center for Strategic and International Studies, Prager. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-275-99250-7.
  4. ↑ "Jane's Ammunition Handbook". Jane's Information Group. |chapter= ignored (help)
  5. ↑ "FIROS-25/30, Multiple launch rocket system". Military Today.

External links

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