The S-8 is a

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

weapon developed by the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

for use by

military aircraft A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat: * Combat aircraft are designed to destroy enemy equipm ...

. It remains in service with the Russian Air Force and various export customers. Developed in the 1970s, the S-8 is an 80 mm (3.1 in)

used by

fighter bomber A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, wh ...

s and

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s. The system entered service in 1984 and is produced in a variety of subtypes with different

warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...

s, including

HEAT In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

anti-armor, high-explosive fragmentation, smoke, and incendiary, as well as the specialized S-8BM

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

-destroying munition and the S-8DM

fuel-air explosive A thermobaric weapon, also called an aerosol bomb, a vacuum bomb or a fuel air explosive (FAE), is a type of explosive that uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion. The fuel–air explosive is one of the be ...

variants. Each rocket is between 1.5 meters (4 ft 11 in) and 1.7 meters (5 ft 7 in) long and weighs between 11.3 kg (25 lb) and 15.2 kg (33.5 lb), depending on warhead and fuse. Range is 2 to 4 kilometers (1.3 to 2.6 mi). The S-8 is generally carried in the B series of rocket pods, carrying either seven or 20 rockets. In 2018, the

Russian Aerospace Forces The Russian Aerospace Forces or Russian Air and Space Forces ( rus, Воздушно-космические силы, r=Vozdushno-kosmicheskiye sily) or VKS ( rus, ВКС}) comprise the air and space branch of the Armed Forces of the Russian Fe ...

took delivery and completed state tests of several batches of the S-8OFP Broneboishchik, successor to the S-8. While both rockets are unguided, the S-8OFP has greater range, a heavier warhead, and a digital fuse. The rocket is intended for armament of

Su-25 The Sukhoi Su-25 ''Grach'' (russian: Грач (''rook''); NATO reporting name: Frogfoot) is a subsonic, single-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft developed in the Soviet Union by Sukhoi. It was designed to provide close air support for Soviet Gro ...

type aircraft and

Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (russian: Ми-8, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. It is now produced by Russia. In addition to ...

helicopters, depending on the settings of the fuse, is able to penetrate obstacles facing the set targets, it can also explode in front of the obstacle and behind the obstacle. An armored self-propelled 80-tube MLRS vehicle using S-8 rockets has been developed by Belarusian industry. Relatively short range of the rocket (3 – 5 km cross-ground) compared to Grad rockets is compensated for by lower cost and greater beaten area from a high number of rockets. Serbia has developed the helicopter pod L80-07.

Rocket specifications

S-8OFP was already deployed in mid-late 2018 and have been seen at operational launch with

Mi-35M The Soviet and later Russian Mil Mi-24 helicopter has been produced in many variants, as described below. History In 1966, Soviet aircraft designer Mikhail Mil created a mock-up design of a new helicopter (derived from the Mil Mi-8) which was m ...

helicopter.

References

* ''Soviet/Russian Aircraft Weapons Since World War Two'', Yefim Gordon, * ''Mil Mi-24 Hind Attack Helicopter'', Yefim Gordon and Dimitri Komissarov, * ''Jane's Air Launched Weapons Issue 36'', Duncan Lennox,
Warfare.ru S-8 rockets

{{DEFAULTSORT:S-8 Rocket Air-to-ground rockets of the Soviet Union Military equipment introduced in the 1970s

Rocket specifications

See also

References