The

Oerlikon-Bührle ''Oerlikon-Bührle'' (full name ''Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Oerlikon, Bührle & Co.'', initially ''Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Oerlikon'') was a Swiss armaments company based in Oerlikon (Zürich) from 1906 to 1999.Jürg Fink: ''Switzerland as seen by t ...

SNORA and SURA-D are 81-mm and 80-mm

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 ...

s developed in Switzerland in the late 1970s and fielded in the 1980s. The SNORA could be used in both air-to-surface and surface-to-surface

rocket artillery Rocket artillery is artillery that uses rocket explosives as the projectile. The use of rocket artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used (albeit mostly as a psychological weapon). Fire arrows were also us ...

roles, while the SURA-D is an air-to-surface rocket. The SNORA was developed as a cooperative endeavor with the Italian firm SNIA-Viscosa (later SNIA- BPD).

History

The original version of the SURA rocket, the SURA 80R, was developed by

Hispano-Suiza Hispano-Suiza () is a Spanish automotive–engineering company. It was founded in 1904 by Marc Birkigt and Damian Mateu as an automobile manufacturer and eventually had several factories in Spain and France that produced luxury cars, aircraft en ...

in the 1960s. In 1971 Oerlikon-Buhrle took over the military division of Hispano-Suiza and redesignated the SURA 80R, the SURA-FL, and further developed the SURA-FL which is the current SURA-D."SURA" refers to the method of hanging the rockets in a vertical array on an aircraft. The SNORA rockets can be fired from either a supersonic or subsonic aircraft. The SURA-D though, is limited to subsonic aircraft. Oerlikon also developed the RWK 014, a surface-to-surface launcher for the type SNORA rockets. The RWK 014 has dual launchers of 15 tubes each and has been mounted on the

MOWAG MOWAG is a Swiss company which develops, designs and produces armoured vehicles for military applications in both land-only and amphibious configurations. These vehicles have gross vehicle weights ranging from 9 tonnes to 30 tonnes. The company ...

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

APC as well as the M113 armored personnel carrier. The RWK 014 can fire 10 rounds per second and has a reload time of six minutes. The SNORA rocket was still in service as late as 1998 and the SURA-D is still in operational use. SNORA rockets are launched from a variety of pods housing from either six or twelve rockets, while SURA-D rockets are mounted as a vertical array with only the top-most rocket attached to an aircraft

hardpoint A hardpoint is an attachment location on a structural frame designed to transfer force and carry an external or internal load. The term is usually used to refer to the mounting points (more formally known as a weapon station or station) on the ...

. In this system, rockets are fired individually from the bottom of the tier to the top. The unique sliding fixed fin arrangement of the SURA-D acts as the forward hanger for the rocket below it. As the rocket is fired, the four fixed fins mounted on a ring slide down the body till they are stopped at the expansion area of the rocket motor nozzle and are locked in place. The SURA-D increased its accuracy by the addition of flutes inside the nozzle rear to give a low rotation rate in addition to the stabilization effected by four fixed fins which take effect shortly after launch.

Overview

The 80-mm hollow-charge warhead on the SURA-D has been demonstrated by Oerlikon to penetrate of armor. The SNORA rocket can mount one of two hollow-charge warheads, either the RAK 026 which can penetrate of armor, or the RAK 054, capable of penetrating of armor. Both rockets were exported by Switzerland and adopted by other nations, among them Spain, Qatar, Philippines and Botswana. Italy later used the motor of the SNORA rocket as the basis for the development of the 81-mm Medusa rocket.Armada International article
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Variants

;Designation *HE FRAG: High Explosive Fragmentation *HE-I: High Explosive - Incendiary *HC: Hollow Charge (

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 ...

) *MKR: Marker *TNG: Practice

References

* Swiss Military Museum Full ;Notes ;Citations {{reflist, 2 Air-to-ground rockets Artillery of Switzerland Oerlikon-Contraves Rocket artillery Military equipment introduced in the 1980s