Light MLRS: A reality for future SAF?
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Hmm....... I noe at the first glance, many will thing I am advocating this bcos Malaysia is using one. NO!! I'm advocating of the use of small calibre rockets between 70mm to 105mm that are light enough to be mounted on a 4 wheel vehicles. It could be organic to the BDE orbat. This platoon will consist of 4 units of MLRS each with abt 36 rockets each. My reasoning for this is bcos, our division Orbat has only one artillery unit, this will cause a huge strain on that arti Bn to produce fire power. Furthermore, if our comms network is jammed or down, u may end up with fire from the 120mm mortar only, which is lacking in range. Furthermore, it will be faster and more efficient to get support from BDE as it is a shorter chain of command. Look at the recent Afghan war, rockets are widely used by the Taliban, which proves you do not need special skills to operate these equipment, which is a gd news for our conscript army. By not having a large MLRS like those in MAF, u do not need extensive machines and manpower to load them, as small calibre can be easily loaded by small frame Asian. No doubt shorter in range for smaller calibre, we could use these rockets to create a final 'shock' on the enemy terrain before the deliberate assault. These rockets may not be accurate, but the intensive, continuous saturated attacks can make the enemy 'balls to shrink in fear'.
This is a website discussing the use of small calibre MLRS
http://www.combatreform.com/groundrockets.htm -
Considering SAF recently bought the Pegasus & the Primus, it might appear that MLRS isn't on their immediate shopping list.
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Maybe its because we already have them?Originally posted by sgf:Considering SAF recently bought the Pegasus & the Primus, it might appear that MLRS isn't on their immediate shopping list.
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Doing a comparison of Artillery and Rockets, its that the Rockets seem to have a tendency to be highly inaccurate, true?
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no not atm.....Originally posted by tankee1981:Maybe its because we already have them? -
Not sure of the "accuracy", but rocket fire then to be high volume.... and high intensity.. that is the advantage....Originally posted by SpecOps87:Doing a comparison of Artillery and Rockets, its that the Rockets seem to have a tendency to be highly inaccurate, true?
but when you fire all in one salvo, it need a long re-load time befoer you correct...
for tube arty, there is a longer sustainability of fire... meaning you could "correct" your fire until it is accurate and literally fire on it all day long....
also for rocket fire.. i think we would probably need a large volume of fire for it to be effective.
As such, if we use it.... it might be useful as a Division asset to be consolidated and then utilized at a point where it is more effective.
i think more a Bde asset, they prob want something more mobile and easily controllable....
I thot each Bde will have a Arty bde attached? -
depends on the bde. i think armour has 1 arty bde attached, but it might not be the same for guards/commandos for example.Originally posted by spencer99:Not sure of the "accuracy", but rocket fire then to be high volume.... and high intensity.. that is the advantage....
but when you fire all in one salvo, it need a long re-load time befoer you correct...
for tube arty, there is a longer sustainability of fire... meaning you could "correct" your fire until it is accurate and literally fire on it all day long....
also for rocket fire.. i think we would probably need a large volume of fire for it to be effective.
As such, if we use it.... it might be useful as a Division asset to be consolidated and then utilized at a point where it is more effective.
i think more a Bde asset, they prob want something more mobile and easily controllable....
I thot each Bde will have a Arty bde attached? -
I think the guards bde have a 105mm LG Bn attached.Originally posted by beavan:depends on the bde. i think armour has 1 arty bde attached, but it might not be the same for guards/commandos for example. -
I mean just depending on the arti bn may be over burdening them, thus I think small calibre maybe a good supplement. Firstly, it is more mobile, can practise shoot and scoot, as it can be towed by a 4x4. Secondly, they can be hand loaded, i mean they are not as heavy as the large calibre.
Maybe guided rockets can be more accurate? -
I think the main advantage of rocket arty over gun arty is that you can put down a larger volume of fire within a short span of time.
I think it's disadvantages are lower accuracy and not suitable for sustained bombardment.
For the terrain around our region, I think it is difficult to find open wide terrain where you can catch the enemy troops in the open. So the opportunities for short intense fire looks low.
For close fire support, as an infantry men, I wouldn't want rockets to do the bombardment. Drop on me how?
But if we want to dislodged dugged-in soldiers and in urban area, we need accurate and sustainablement bombardment.
If the issue is not enough capacity for fire missions, then why not just add more guns instead of more rockets? You can add more guns to division, regiment or battlion levels. Wouldn't adding different firing platform and ammunitions only complicate the logistics more?
The only need I can think of choosing rocket arty over gun arty is guided munitions. Such as if there is a formation of tanks found on the move, then the rockets can be launched to dispense guided sub-anti-tank munitions againts the tanks. -
any idea how many guns singapore has?