The truck chassis itself is a rugged all-wheel drive platform fitting a gasoline-powered V-8 engine outputting 180 horsepower. The engine is conventionally mounted in the front of the chassis with the crew cabin just aft. The launch platform and launch tubes are seated on their mount at the rear flatbed portion of the truck. BM-21s are typically fielded with an accompanying resupply vehicle (the 6x6 "9T254") bringing along 60 refill rockets. The reloading process takes around ten minutes and involves the crew manually fitting each rocket into their respective launch tubes. Each launch tube is "rifled" to promote stabilization in flight, though this is at the expense of greater range.
Each rocket measures in at over 9 feet in length and rests within each launch tube. The rocket maintains its own stabilization fins for airborne travel which make them relatively accurate weapons when targeting an area - not so much when attempting to engage a precise target. Each rocket can be fitted with a variety of accepted military warheads that range from the typical HE (High-Explosive) and Fragmentation to specialized versions including radio frequency jammer, illumination, chemical or incendiary types. Additionally, rockets can "deliver" submunitions against a target area in the form of anti-tank or anti-personnel bomblets. Depending on the rocket type, warhead and operating conditions, range can be out to as much as 20 miles. Each rocket can also be fitted with any warhead as designed and developed by a respective operator, no longer limited to the Soviet/Russian offerings.
The BM-21 has been branched out into a plethora of variants, some including original Soviet/Russian designs while others are further developments within their respective armies. Chief operators beyond the Soviet Union/Russia have included Algeria (250), Bulgaria (300), Cambodia (100), Greece (116), India (over 150), Iran (over 100), Kazakhstan (100), Poland (219), Romania (352), Syria (250), Ukraine (600), Vietnam (800) and Yemen (280). Some nations mount the M-21 rocket projector on indigenous chassis for 6x6 or 8x8 wheel capability. Russia is thought to still have access to some 1,750 BM-21 systems and their variants. Modernized versions exist globally.
China produces a copy of the BM-21 as the "Type 81 SPRL", this based on captured specimens from the 1979 Sino-Vietnam War. Their version is different only in that it makes use of an indigenous Chinese 6x6 chassis and features blast shields for the crew cab. Other sub-variants to this base family line exist.
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