The Ukrainian Air Force is to receive new Western-made S-8 unguided air-to-ground rockets.
They are manufactured for Ukraine by the Bulgarian defense company Armaco.
Ukraine is provided with Western-made S-8 air-to-ground rockets
The S-8 unguided air-to-ground rocket with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead was developed for destroying armored and non-armored surface targets and the manpower of the enemy. It is part of the unguided airborne armaments of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters belonging to tactical air force or army aviation, as well as carrier aviation.
However, these unguided rockets are also used in Ukraine as munitions for multiple-launch rocket systems mounted on a pickup truck frame.
Ukraine is provided with Western-made S-8 air-to-ground rockets
Context. Before the full-scale invasion, in January 2022, it was announced that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense planned a fivefold increase in the order for RS-80 unguided rockets, a model based on the S-8 basic design, for the Armed Forces.
In February 2020, after a few years of tests, Ukrainian-made 80mm RS-8 unguided air-to-ground rockets were put into service by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. To ensure additional efficiency, the designers of SJSC Artem provided for the possibility of fitting the RS-80 with different warheads and fuses. In November 2021, Artem reported that RS-80 prototypes with a thermobaric warhead and an explosively formed penetrator had been successfully tested.
