The S-8 is a

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

weapon developed by the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

for use by

military aircraft A military aircraft is any Fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing or rotorcraft, rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary military of any type. Some military aircraft engage directly in aerial warfare, while others take on su ...

. It remains in service with the

Russian Aerospace Forces The Russian Aerospace Forces or Russian Air and Space Forces (VKS) comprise the air force, aerial, space force, space warfare, and Missile defense, missile defence Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It was ...

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 (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

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

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

s, including

HEAT In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, ato ...

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

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

-destroying munition and the S-8DM

fuel-air explosive A thermobaric weapon, also called an aerosol bomb, or a vacuum bomb, is a type of explosive munition that works by dispersing an aerosol cloud of gas, liquid or powdered explosive. The fuel is usually a single compound, rather than a mixture o ...

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

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'' ( ('' 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 Ground Forces. The ...

type aircraft and

Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. Russian production of t ...

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. The S-8OFP entered service and put into serial production in May 2023. An armored self-propelled 80-tube MLRS vehicle using S-8 rockets has been developed by

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian 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. The S-8 has been used in ground-to-ground mode against Ukrainian positions at Pavlopil by pro-Russian forces during the

war in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

on 4 May and 20 June 2020. Two unexploded rockets were defused by the Ukrainian army in the later incident.

Rocket specifications

S-8OFP was already deployed in mid-late 2018 and have been seen at operational launch with Mi-35M 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,
VTTV-99 S-8 rocket specs

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

Rocket specifications

See also

References