Editing Katyusha rocket launcher (section)

=== Development ===
{{main|Reactive Scientific Research Institute}}
[[File:Verkhnyaya Pyshma Tank Museum 2011 029.jpg|thumb|BM-13N Katyusha on a [[Lend-Lease]] [[Studebaker US6 2½-ton 6×6 truck|Studebaker US6 {{frac|2|1|2}}-ton 6×6 truck]], at the [[Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Moscow|UMMC Museum Complex]], [[Verkhnyaya Pyshma]]]]
[[File:BM-31-12 on ZIS-12 chassis at the Museum on Sapun Mountain Sevastopol 4.jpg|thumb|BM-31-12 on ZIS-12 at the Museum ([[Diorama]]) on Sapun Mountain, [[Sevastopol]]]]
[[File:BM-13-16 on a ZiS-151 chassis in a military museum in Belarus.jpg|thumb|Katyusha on a [[ZIS-151]] truck]]
[[File:BM 13 TBiU 7.jpg|thumb|upright|Reloading a BM-13]]
[[File:KatyushaMusee.jpg|thumb|upright=.5|An M13 rocket for the Katyusha launcher on display in [[Musée de l'Armée]].]]

Initial development of [[Solid-propellant rocket|solid propellant rockets]] was carried out by [[Nikolai Tikhomirov (chemical engineer)|Nikolai Tikhomirov]] at the Soviet [[Gas Dynamics Laboratory]] (GDL), with the first test-firing of a solid fuel rocket carried out in March 1928, which flew for about 1,300 meters<ref name="RSB_GDL">{{cite web |last1=Zak |first1=Anatoly |title=Gas Dynamics Laboratory |url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/gdl.html |website=Russian Space Web |access-date=29 May 2022}}</ref> The rockets were used to assist [[JATO|take-off of aircraft]] and were later developed into the [[RS-82 (rocket family)|RS-82 and RS-132]] (RS for {{lang|ru-Latn|Reaktivnyy Snaryad}}, 'rocket-powered shell')<ref>{{cite book| author = АКИМОВ В.Н., КОРОТЕЕВ А.С., ГАФАРОВ А.А. и другие | chapter = Оружие победы — «Катюша»| chapter-url = https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1hNj_0pyrU8bTJQZjVSTXVfRVU/view| url = https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=19633690& | title = Исследовательский центр имени М. В. Келдыша. 1933-2003 : 70 лет на передовых рубежах ракетно-космической техники |location= М |year= 2003 |publisher= Машиностроение | pages = 92–101| isbn = 5-217-03205-7| ref = Центр Келдыша}}</ref> in the early 1930s led by [[Georgy Langemak]],<ref name = 'Siddiqi'>{{cite book |last1=Siddiqi |first1=Asif |title=Challenge to Apollo : the Soviet Union and the space race, 1945-1974 |date=2000 |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA History Div. |pages=9|location=Washington, D.C. |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt1.pdf |access-date=3 July 2022}}</ref> including firing rockets from aircraft and the ground. In June 1938, GDL's successor [[Reactive Scientific Research Institute]] (RNII) began building several [[prototype]] launchers for the modified 132&nbsp;mm M-132 rockets.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Zak |first1=Anatoly |title=History of the Rocket Research Institute, RNII |url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/rnii.html |website=Russian Space Web |access-date=7 July 2022}}</ref> Firing over the sides of [[ZIS-5 (truck)|ZIS-5]] trucks proved unstable, and V.N. Galkovskiy proposed mounting the launch rails longitudinally. In August 1939, the result was the BM-13 (BM stands for ''боевая машина'' (translit. ''boyevaya mashina''), 'combat vehicle' for M-13 rockets).<ref name=Zaloga-1984-150 />

The first large-scale testing of the rocket launchers took place at the end of 1938, when 233 rounds of various types were used. A salvo of rockets could completely straddle a target at a range of {{convert|5,500|m|mi}}. But the artillery branch was not fond of the Katyusha, because it took up to 50 minutes to load and fire 24 rounds, while a conventional howitzer could fire 95 to 150 rounds in the same time.{{citation needed|date=August 2008}} Testing with various rockets was conducted through 1940, and the BM-13-16 with launch rails for sixteen rockets was authorized for production. Only forty launchers were built before [[Operation Barbarossa|Germany invaded the Soviet Union]] in June 1941.<ref name=Zaloga-1984-153 />

After their success in the first month of the war, mass production was ordered and the development of other models proceeded. The Katyusha was inexpensive and could be manufactured in light industrial installations which did not have the heavy equipment to build conventional artillery gun barrels.<ref name=Zaloga-1984-154 /> By the end of 1942, 3,237 Katyusha launchers of all types had been built, and by the end of the war total production reached about 10,000.<ref name=Zaloga-1984-154-55>Zaloga, pp 154–55.</ref>

The truck-mounted Katyushas were installed on [[ZIS-6]] 6×4 trucks, as well as the two-axle [[ZIS-5 (truck)|ZIS-5]] and [[ZIS-5V]]. In 1941, a small number of BM-13 launchers were mounted on [[STZ-5]] artillery tractors. A few were also tried on [[KV tank]] chassis as the KV-1K, but this was a needless waste of heavy armour. Starting in 1942, they were also mounted on various British, Canadian and U.S. [[Lend-Lease]] trucks, in which case they were sometimes referred to as BM-13S. The [[off-road|cross-country]] performance of the [[Studebaker US6 2½-ton 6×6 truck]] was so good that it became the GAU's standard mounting in 1943, designated BM-13N (''normalizovanniy'', 'standardized'), and more than 1,800 of this model were manufactured by the end of World War II.<ref>Zaloga, pp 153–54.</ref> After World War II, BM-13s were based on Soviet-built [[ZIS-151]] trucks.

The 82&nbsp;mm BM-8 was approved in August 1941, and deployed as the BM-8-36 on truck beds and BM-8-24 on [[T-40]] and [[T-60 tank|T-60]] light tank chassis. Later these were also installed on [[GAZ-67]] jeeps as the BM-8-8, and on the larger [[Studebaker]] trucks as the BM-8-48.<ref name=Zaloga-1984-154 /> In 1942, the team of scientists Leonid Shvarts, Moisei Komissarchik and engineer Yakov Shor received the [[State Stalin Prize|Stalin Prize]] for the development of the BM-8-48.<ref>Rachel Bayvel, "[http://www.jewishquarterly.org/article.asp?articleid=91 Tales of 'Tank City'. Rachel Bayvel Celebrates the Soviet Jews Who Produced Weapons for Allied Victory] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090131121742/http://www.jewishquarterly.org/article.asp?articleid=91 |date=2009-01-31 }}". ''Jewish Quarterly'' no. 198, summer 2005. Retrieved on 2008-09-30.</ref><ref>Yosif Kremenetsky (1999), "[http://www.usfamily.net/web/joseph/evr_v_prom_sssr.htm Inzhenerno-tekhnicheskaya deyatel’nost’ yevreyev v SSSR] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130222191348/http://www.usfamily.net/web/joseph/evr_v_prom_sssr.htm |date=2013-02-22 }} (Engineering-technical activities of Jews in the USSR)", ''Yevrey pri bol’shevistskom stroye (Jews in the Bolshevist order)'', Minneapolis. Retrieved on 2008-09-30.</ref>

Based on the M-13, the M-30 rocket was developed in 1942. Its bulbous warhead required it to be fired from a grounded frame, called the M-30 (single frame, four round; later double frame, 8 round), instead of a launch rail mounted on a truck. In 1944 it became the basis for the BM-31-12 truck-mounted launcher.<ref name=Zaloga-1984-154 />

A battery of BM-13-16 launchers included four firing vehicles, two reload trucks and two technical support trucks, with each firing vehicle having a crew of six. Reloading was executed in 3–4 minutes, although the standard procedure was to [[Shoot-and-scoot|switch to a new position]] some 10&nbsp;km away due to the ease with which the battery could be identified by the enemy. Three batteries were combined into a division (company), and three divisions into a separate mine-firing regiment of rocket artillery.{{cn|date=January 2023}}