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LAR-160

1983 COLD WAR MODERN

History

For decades, rocket launchers have been a mainstay against ground forces. The Soviet Union recognized its value very well during World War II (1939-1945) during its push to Berlin, and today many national armies maintain an inventory of such vehicles in modernized form.

These systems are capable of firing a variety of warheads (including chemicals and submunitions) from positions behind the front linean inexpensive but very useful battlefield measure.

In the late 1970s, Israel Military Industries (IMI) began work on a new missile launcher known as the "LAR-160". The package contains 13 160mm caliber 3.4m rockets in a sturdy casing. This case can then be paired with another (26 missiles in total) and combined with a traversing mechanism to provide tactical flexibility and vehicle maneuverability.

The launcher has a quick set-up function that is ready to fire in a short time and clears the missile tube within 60 seconds. The reload completes in five minutes. The missile has a range of 45 kilometers.

The original missile was the "Mark I", a 100kg weapon that carried a 40kg HE-COFRAM warhead (detonated by impact or proximity fuze). After that came the "Mark II," which introduced a 100-pound warhead for a total weight of 250 pounds.

The warhead can be variable and matched to the original HE-COFRAM or submunitions - the latter of which are released over a target area to create an area saturation effect - useful against enemy infantry concentrations. The Mark IV is another modern missile development of the LAR-160 system.

In addition to being incorporated into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the LAR-160 was eventually purchased by the armed forces of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Chile. Argentina uses the LAR-160 system through its TAM vehicle "VCLC", and Romania has developed a local variant (with the support of Israel) as "LAROM".

The Venezuelan form can be seen using the French AMX-13 tank chassis.

It is known that the LAR-160 system was used in combat operations in the 2008 South Ossetia war between Georgia and Russia (with the Georgian army).