Katyusha rocket launcher

Katyusha
BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket launcher, based on a ZIS-5 truck.
Type	Multiple rocket launcher
Place of origin	Voronezh, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Service history
In service	1941–present
Used by	Soviet Union, and others
Wars	World War II First Indochina War Korean War Vietnam War Cambodian–Vietnamese War Yom Kippur War South African Border War Ogaden War Iran–Iraq War Uganda–Tanzania War 2006 Lebanon War First Libyan Civil War Syrian civil war War in Iraq (2013–2017) Yemeni civil war (2014–present) Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–present)
Production history
Designer	Georgy Langemak
Manufacturer	Voronezh Plant Comintern
Produced	1941
No. built	~100,000

The Katyusha (Russian: Катю́ша, IPA: [kɐˈtʲuʂə] ^ⓘ) is a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. Multiple rocket launchers such as these deliver explosives to a target area more intensively than conventional artillery, but with lower accuracy and requiring a longer time to reload. They are fragile compared to artillery guns, but are cheap, easy to produce, and usable on almost any chassis. The Katyushas of World War II, the first self-propelled artillery mass-produced by the Soviet Union,^[1] were usually mounted on ordinary trucks. This mobility gave the Katyusha, and other self-propelled artillery, another advantage: being able to deliver a large blow all at once, and then move before being located and attacked with counter-battery fire.

Katyusha weapons of World War II included the BM-13 launcher, light BM-8, and heavy BM-31. Today, the nickname Katyusha is also applied to newer truck-mounted post-Soviet – in addition to non-Soviet – multiple-rocket launchers, notably the common BM-21 Grad and its derivatives.