The Ukrainian Air Force uses American-made air-to-ground Zuni rockets against Russian invaders.
The Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, posted a photo of a Su-25 jet armed with these rockets.
A Ukrainian Su-25 jet with Zuni rockets. Photo: Mykola Oleshchuk
The United States included 4,000 Zuni aircraft rockets in one of the defense aid packages for Ukraine in January.
These air-to-ground rockets are used to hit surface targets, fortifications, other facilities, and marching convoys of enemy equipment.
The most active users of the Zuni rocket were the U.S. Naval Air Forces and Marine Corps Aviation in the military campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, including in Vietnam.
The rocket was developed by the engineers of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the 1950s. Since 1958, it has been mass-produced by Hunter-Douglas, a subsidiary of Bridgeport Brass Company. Since 1966, the rocket has been produced under license by the Belgian company Forges de Zeebrugge, now part of Thales.
American-made Zuni rockets are used by Ukrainian forces
The platforms carrying these rockets, besides American warplanes made in the 1960s and 1970s, are the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, the F-16 Fighting Falcon and F/A-18 Hornet fighters, and the Bell AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter.
Specifications of the Zuni rocket:
- Diameter: 127 mm
- Length: 2,790 mm
- Weight: 46.3–61.6 kg (depending on the type of engine and warhead)
- Warhead weight: 20.7–25.6 kg
- Warhead type: high-explosive fragmentation, high-explosive, anti-armor, illumination, smoke
- Maximum speed: 725 m/s
- Operational range: 8 km
