The S-24 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 designed and used 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 ...

. It remains in use by 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 ...

Ukrainian Air Force The Ukrainian Air Force (, PS ZSU) is the air force of Ukraine and one of the eight Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU). Its current form was created in 2004 by merging the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces into the Air Fo ...

and many export countries. The name is based on the diameter of the rocket, . The Soviet Union was an enthusiastic user of rocket weapons, employing them as early as the 1930s. The S-24/S-24B is a very large, powerful unguided weapon and one of a handful of successors to the earlier World War II-era BETAB-750DS rockets. The S-24B differs from the S-24 in that it uses BN-K low smoke motor powder for a low-smoke flight. The S-24 is long, with a launch weight of . It has a blast- fragmentation

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 ...

. Its range is about . The S-24 is carried individually on weapon hardpoints, rather than in pods. Proximity fuze RV-24 is also available, in which the warhead detonate 3 meters above ground, creating 300–400 m radius of fragmentation casualty zone. The body is mesh-texture shape-hardened by electric treatment and creates 4000 fragments that can penetrate up to 30 millimeters of armor, though some sources dispute this and give a figure of 25 millimeters. The rocket is also license produced in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

under the name of Shafaq.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:S-24 Rocket Air-to-ground rockets of the Soviet Union

See also

References