BM-8-24

BM-8-24

BM-8-24

USSR

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
1.3	1.3	1.3

Class:

PREMIUM

Tank destroyer

Purchase:3 850

Show in game

Description

The BM-8-24 is premium rank I Soviet tank destroyer with a battle rating of 1.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.53 "Firestorm". It is a T-60 chassis carrying Katyusha rocket launcher that can fire 24 rockets towards the enemy. It was also the vehicle that had to be used to unlock the BM-13N in the 2017 Victory Day Event.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back

Hull35 / 15 / 25

Turret25 / 25 / 25

Crew2 people

Visibility125 %

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour

Armour	Front	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	15 mm (73°) Front glacis 35 mm (24°) Lower glacis 35 mm (22-30°) Driver's port	15 mm	10 mm (65-70°) Top 25 mm (28°) Bottom	13 mm
Rocket Pad	25 mm (1-2°)	25 mm (0-1°)	25 mm (2-11°)	25 mm
Cupola	35 mm (34°)	15 mm (8-11°)	10 mm (26°)	13 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels are 10 mm thick, tracks are 15 mm thick
• Belly armour is 10 mm thick.

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB47 / 7 km/h

RB and SB44 / 6 km/h

Number of gears4 forward

1 back

Weight5.8 t

Engine power

AB145 hp

RB and SB76 hp

Power-to-weight ratio

AB25.0 hp/t

RB and SB13.1 hp/t

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	47	7	5.8	108	145	18.62	25
Realistic	44	6		67	76	11.55	13.1

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB1 244

RB1 328

SB726

Crew training2 300

Experts15 000

Aces115

Research Aces320 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 60 / 80 / 80 %

2 × 112 / 112 / 112 %

Modifications

Mobility	Protection	Firepower
Tracks Suspension Brake System Filters Transmission Engine	Improved Parts Improved FPE Crew Replenishment	Horizontal Drive Elevation Mechanism Artillery Support

Armaments

Main armament

82 mm M-8 rocket

Ammunition24 rounds

Belt capacity24 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

10.4 → 8.0 s

Fire rate180 shots/min

Vertical guidance-3° / 40°

Horizontal guidance-13° / 13°

82 mm M-8 rockets					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	24	-3°/+40°	±13°	N/A	13.2	18.3	22.2	24.6	26.1	10.40	9.20	8.48	8.00
Realistic					8.9	10.5	12.8	14.1	15.0

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
M-8	Rocket	9	9	9	9	9	9

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
M-8	Rocket	315	7.92	0	0.1	600	79°	80°	81°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the BM-8-24

Full ammo	Visual discrepancy
24	No

Notes:

• Rockets deplete from left to right, top row first and then bottom row.
• It is not possible to select how many rockets to bring into battle.

Usage in battles

As the BM-8-24 lacks survivability, only carries 24 rockets which have poor penetration, and has average mobility, the ideal playstyle is to use terrain or buildings to hide and wait for enemies to pass, only engaging if it's a target you can penetrate and waiting until its side or rear is to you.

The BM-8-24 has extremely poor survivability, as it only has two crew, armour which can only stop MG fire, and exposed rockets on the rack. The ammo is extremely easy to detonate with a direct hit, with chemical rounds only taking one shot to do so and kinetic rounds taking two or three depending on caliber, and even machine gun fire is able to set them off if enough rounds hit a single rocket .

Despite the respectable HE filler, the 9mm of penetration leaves your list of viable targets is extremely limited, with only open vehicles and enclosed vehicles with the thinnest of armor being vulnerable to your rockets. Even vehicles with poor armor such as the Panzer II, BT-5 and 7, or M3 Stuart may be difficult or impossible to destroy. Some vehicles such as the LVT have thin enough armor for a shot anywhere to be able to penetrate, while others such as the M2A4 or Panzer 38(t) may only take damage from a rocket hitting the roof, cupola, or hull roof. Luckily, the rockets have enough HE filler to guarantee a lethal blow with a hit on an open top vehicle, or on penetration of an armored vehicle (with the exception of some larger vehicles such as the LVT due to the distance between the crew). It is also theoretically possible to destroy tanks with overpressure by hitting the ground under them, however this may be difficult to do consistently, especially given the poor depression of the rocket rack.

Due to the difficulty of accurately aiming the rockets past close range, the ideal scenario would be to hide behind cover that's nearby the enemy and that you can see over/around with your camera, allowing you to watch over it for viable targets, peeking out once you spot one. Since some vehicles require roof shots to penetrate, it may be advantageous to be above your target, although the poor depression of the rocket rack means to aim downward enough you'd have to be on a slope. It may also be viable to use spots that require engaging at longer ranges and only firing at open/light vehicles that don't require aiming for weak spots, especially as the drop of the rockets allows for arcing them over hills while you safely sit behind them, which is by far the safest way to use this vehicle due to peeking even just your rocket rack over cover leaving your ammo open to being detonated.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Rocket launcher vehicle
• Smallest rocket launcher profile
• High-velocity rockets (good for medium-long range)
• High firerate
• Small and agile, allows for quick re-positioning on the battlefield

Cons:

• No other armaments except rocket launchers
• Rockets only have 13 degrees of horizontal guidance in each direction
• Same poor armour as the T-60
• Reloads the entire rack at once, leaving you helpless for the entire 30 second reload if you're out of ammo, and doesn't reload any faster if you don't need a full reload
• Small rocket supply of only 24
• Very poor depression can cause it to be problematic to hit low targets at close ranges
• Lowest penetration on a primary weapon in the entire game; penetration is extremely poor even on direct hits, leaving most vehicles difficult or impossible to penetrate
• Very wide rocket rack causes strong parallax that changes with each shot, making accurate aiming harder

History

Development

The concept of a multiple rocket launcher system came about in June 1938, when the Soviet Jet Propulsion Research Institute was authorized by the Main Artillery Directorate to develop such system for the RS-132 rocket in use on their aircraft. A prototype by I. Gvay in Chelyabinsk was tried and fired M-132 rockets on ZiS-5 trucks, though these were unstable and were revised on the proposals of V.N. Galkovskiy to mount the launching rails longitudinally. Testing for the newly made prototype began at the end of 1938, firing 233 rounds in a couple of salvos. The rockets were found to be able to hit up to 5,500 m out, but the system was not looked fondly upon by the artillery branch. It took 50 minutes to load 24 rockets onto the launching rail, while a regular artillery cannon and howitzer can fire about a hundred in the same time at a sustained rate.

Testing continued up until 1940 and with a prototype of a truck with the launch rails on the back. The design was approved for production before Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, and mass-production began after the first month of the war, where the multiple rocket launchers proved very successful. During the war, the launchers were taken with much secrecy and operated by specialized troops such as the NKVD who do not even know its true name. Through the presence of a "K" on the vehicles from the Komintern Factory, the soldiers operating decided to nickname these launchers "Katyusha" after a popular wartime song of the same name. Up to 3,237 of all types of Katyusha launchers were produced from 1941 to the end of 1942, and more than 10,000 were made by the end of the war.

Advantages and disadvantages

Compared to the contemporary artillery systems of the time, the multiple rocket launcher system presented a different kind of artillery barrages used in the field. Advantages the multiple rocket launcher was that they were simple, extremely effective in saturation bombardment, fires lots of ordnance in a small time span, and were usually attached to mobile vehicles that can permit a quick retreat after firing to prevent counter-battery firing. Disadvantages with the system were that the rockets took a long time to reload, less accurate than regular artillery guns, and cannot sustain fire for a long period of time. However, in the battlefield, the multiple rocket launcher induces a greater psychological effect onto the targets on the receiving end due to the heavy amount of explosives able to be delivered in a short time. A battery of only four launchers could deliver their salvos of about 4.35 tons of explosives in a span of no longer than 10 seconds at a 400,000 square metre area.

Designations

Multiple variants of the multiple rocket launcher systems were made in the course of the war as the design is simply the attachment of launch rails onto a variety of vehicles. Each vehicle has different names that follow a template to distinguish their types.

• "BM-x-y" indicates a ground vehicle.
• "M-x-y" indicates a towed variant.
• "y-M-x" indicates a naval variant.

and "x" stands for the missile model while "y" stands for the number of launch rails available for the launcher variant. For example, the BM-8-16 indicates a ground vehicle firing M-8 rockets with 16 rails available to mount on.

Vehicles using the Katyusha launchers range from trucks, cars, and tanks. The production started with trucks such as the ZiS-6, then moving on to STZ-5 artillery tractors, then on Allied Lend-Lease vehicles. The 82 mm M-8 rockets, which saw service in August 1941, was the most popular rocket variant and saw use on the trucks and even tanks, which would make the BM-8-24 rocket launcher tank mounted on the T-60 light tank. Another attempt with tank mounting was with a KV-1 heavy tank as the KV-1K, but as a waste of heavy armour, this was scrapped.

Combat usage

The Katyusha rocket launchers first saw service during the opening of Operation Barbarossa against Germany. On July 14, 1941, under the experimental battery commanded by Captain Ivan Flyorov, seven launchers were used in Rudnya and were able to cause massive destruction to the Germans in the town before they fled in panic. This success prompted the Red Army to build up more Katyushas in their inventory and raise more batteries and regiments for the vehicle. All these units were under NKVD control for secrecy until the Germans reveal their own multiple rocket launcher systems, the Nebelwerfer. The Germans nicknamed the Katyusha launchers as the "Stalin's Organ" after Joseph Stalin and how the launchers are organized in a way to look like a church organ. This German nickname became widely known in other areas in Western Europe. By the end of 1941, eight regiments and 37 independent battalions were available with a count of 554 Katyushas total.

The rocket launchers continue to become more integrated into the rest of the army as the war continued. Heavy mortar battalions were armed with the newer M-30 rocket launchers with heavy 300 mm M-30 rockets on June 1942. In July, a battalion of rocket launchers was added into the tank corps. The organization and equipment of these mortar battalions equipped with the Katyusha continue to increase and by the end of the war in 57 regiments, about 518 batteries of Katyusha launchers were available.

Legacy

The Katyusha launchers, issued in large numbers in the Eastern Front, was largely successful in the strategic effect of the war, granting the Soviet Union the ability to lay down a very heavy and shocking bombardment very quickly. The success of the system prompted many other countries to pursue such a system as well, such as the modified T34 Calliope based off the Sherman and the Germans Panzerwerfer 42s. Today, the multiple rocket launcher system is still widespread with the implementation of newer technology, rockets, and missiles that make the rocket launcher system a very potent weapon to anyone on the receiving end.

Archive of the in-game description

Based on the T-60 light tank, the first BM-8-24-class self-propelled mount featuring a jet-based volley-fire system on a tank chassis was built in 1941. At first the self-propelled mount was released on the basis of the T-40 light tank, but it was later replaced on the assembly line by the T-60 tank, and production continued on this basis. The jet-based artillery subdivision of which the BM-8-24 MRLS SPG was a member was subordinate to Supreme Command. Jet-based artillery divisions were assigned to divisions and added to long-range (LR) divisions. A total of 44 T-40 tanks were re-equipped as volley-fire installations.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the BM-8-24 from live.warthunder.com.

See also

Vehicles equipped with the same chassis

• T-60

Other vehicles of similar configuration and role

• Calliope
• Panzerwerfer 42
• BM-13N

External links

• [Devblog] BМ-8-24 Rocket Artillery - with developer's answers
• [Wikipedia] Katyusha rocket launcher