BM-8-24 KATIUSZA - RADZIECKA SAMOBIEŻNA WYRZUTNIA RAKIETOWA Z II WOJNY ŚWIATOWEJ

The first work on the BM-24 self-propelled missile launcher probably began shortly after the end of World War II, and in 1947 the set was adopted by the Soviet Army. Serial production started at the Automobile Plant No. 2 in Moscow. The BM-24 set had a launcher with 12 M-24 or UD or MS-24 missiles with a 240 mm caliber. The launcher was mounted on three different chassis: ZIS-151, ZIL-157 trucks and the AT-S tractor. It is estimated that the most produced versions based on the ZIS-151 chassis (version BM-24 U-8-31). The chassis versions of the AT-S were introduced only at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. The main task of the BM-24 set was to hit surface targets, such as enemy artillery clusters, field fortifications or places of its concentration. The BM-24 set has been exported to many countries, including China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia and Poland. Israeli troops seized a number of BM-24 launchers in the course of the Six-Day War in 1967 and used them successfully in the Yom-Kippur War (1973) and in the invasion of Lebanon in 1982.