Military Illustrated Modeller – August 2019

MODELLING REFERENCES CZECHOSLOVAKIAN RM-70 MULTIPLE LAUNCH ROCKET SYSTEM

 Military Illustrated Modeller - August 2019

WARSAW PACT WARRIOR

The RM-70 multiple launch rocket system is

another of those Warsaw Pact warriors that will

not go quietly into the night, instead finding a new

role in the bush wars and civil strife throughout the

developing world. Zack Sex brings us a run-down

on this most interesting of MLRS variants

T

he year is 2007, it's a warm, balmy mid-

March morning on the island Sri Lanka. The

jungle canopy and morning sky is suddenly

blotted out as multiple fireballs and black, acrid

clouds of smoke erupt in Elephant Pass. The young

Tamil Tigers or LTTE fighters have little time to take

cover as Sri Lankan Army, Czech-supplied RM-70

MLRS blast open paths through their defensive

positions. T-55s, South African Buffels, Chinese APCs

,BMP-2s and BTR-80s pour through the gaps, while

overhead, Hinds and Kfirs deliver death from above.

Selvarasa Prabhakaran and his Tigers don't know

it yet but this is the beginning of the end; two years

from now, LTTE will have been annihilated along

WITH Prabhakaran and his entire leadership.

Around the globe in Angola, RM-70s of the

government MPLA forces blast similarly dedicated

and fanatical UNITA forces of Jonas Savimbi,

but it will take South African mercenaries in the

form of 'Executive Outcomes' to finish off their old

ally Savimbi and his rebels. In August 2008 in

South Ossetia, Georgian forces will abandon their

RM-70s, DANA SPGs, T-72s and Humvees having

foolishly poked the Russian bear in their ill-fated

blitzkrieg into this disputed territory.

BUDGET BOMBER

Czech RM-70s, amongst other vehicles and small-

arms, carved out a niche throughout the developing

world for their sturdy design, and reliability in a

market where price is all-important. Indeed, cash-

strapped countries such as the DRC, Cambodia,

Nigeria, Rwanda, Ecuador and Zimbabwe lined

up to collect their secondhand RM-70s at bargain

basement prices while the North Koreans, no

strangers to domestic MLRS production smuggled a

bunch of RM-70 back to their 'People's Paradise' as

late as 2018.

It was a very different world when the RM-70

had been originally developed, back in 1970. For

one, the then unified Czechoslovakia was part of

the Soviet-imposed Warsaw Pact, communist party

ideology was the cornerstone of Moscow-imposed

order and Prague had only been recently rained

in by communist forces (see T-10M article in this

issue). But the Czechoslovakians had a history of

producing well made weapons as an independent

state and then under the Nazis when the German

Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS used hundreds of their

35(t) and 38(t) tank and SPGs.

CZECH MATE

After 1945 the Czechoslovakians were allowed

produce their own vehicles, some based on German

hardware and others on Soviet, license-produced

designs for themselves and fellow Pact members,

as well for hard currency export to friendly Arab

An impressive front view of the Czechoslovakian

RM-70 incorporating the Tatra T813, an armoured

cab unit and the famous Soviet BM-21 122mm

MLRS launcher unit. Of note are the punctured

Tatra tyres, an interesting touch for the fan of

battle damaged vehicle

FOR SALE