MAART03 M270 MLRS

Developed jointly by the United Kingdom, United States, West Germany, France and Italy, the M270 MLRS was introduced in 1983. Production ended in 2003 although it remains in service throughout NATO in Europe, and the Middle East.

The M270 can fire guided and unguided projectiles up to 42 km (26 mi), or over 300 km using the ballistic Army Tactical Missile System. It is particularly effective in ‘shoot-and-scoot’ tactics, firing its rockets then moving away to avoid counter-battery fire.

A typical MLRS cluster salvo consists of three M270 vehicles each firing all 12 rockets. With each rocket containing 644 M77 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) grenades, the entire salvo would drop over 23,000 grenades in the target area. Each grenade can penetrate up to four inches of armour and its steel case fragments and produces antipersonnel effects with a radius of 4 metres.

Sample in West German colours painted by Sebastian.