Russians Adapt RBU-6000 Anti-Submarine Rocket Launcher for Ural Truck Chassis

24 January, 2024 RBU-6000 Smerch-2 213mm rocket launcher on the Ural 4320 truck chassis. Photo credits: @samotniyskhid The Russians installed a RBU-6000 Smerch-2 213mm anti-submarine rocket launcher on the chassis of the Ural 4320 truck.

The corresponding photo was published by the @samotniyskhid Telegram channel. It is reported that a truck with a MRL was spotted in the temporarily occupied city of Alchevsk, in the Luhansk region. It is not known whether the Ural chassis will be able to withstand firing from Smerch-2, and whether the Russian arsenal has more such products.

Militarnyi recently reported that Russian Marines installed the RBU-6000 Smerch-2 anti-submarine rocket launcher on the chassis of the ?-80 tank.

Russian T-80B tank chassis equipped with RBU-6000 rocket launcher, January 2024. Photo credits: t.me/btvt2019

The released video shows fire from an improvised multiple rocket launcher system, which can hardly be called accurate even at close range. In September 2023, it was also reported that the Russians installed a naval rocket launcher on the MT-LB tracked tractor.

RBU-6000 Smerch-2

The RBU-6000 is a Soviet anti-submarine rocket launcher with a fixed dual-plane gun installation with twelve radially located tubes.

It was developed by the Research and Development Centre No1 and adopted by the USSR Navy in 1961. The system is designed to destroy enemy torpedoes and submarines. The boundary angles of guidance RBU-6000 in the vertical plane are between -15? and +60?, and in the horizontal plane at the heading angle, they are between 0? and +180?.

MT-LB with RBU-6000 naval rocket launcher.

Photo from social media

The speed of guidance drives in automatic mode is 30? per second, and in manual mode, it is -4? per second. The system installed on the MT-LB most likely has a manual drive. The launcher is armed with RGB-60 depth charges with a UDV-60 fuser.

The bombs have a mass of 113.6 kilograms and a flight speed of up to 300 meters per second. The maximum firing range reaches 5230 meters. Based on this, it can be assumed that the Russians will use the new installation as a short-range MLRS.

RBU-6000 system fires RGB-60 depth charges.

Photo from open sources

It is also worth noting that reloading of the installation on ships occurs automatically from fire cellars. However, obviously, it will happen manually on these vehicles. Accordingly, most likely, there will be no Burya fire control system.

Therefore, targeting will also be performed in manual mode, which will negatively affect the accuracy of the installation.