Defense Forces destroy Russian rocket launcher system that terrorized Mykolaiv region for months
Photo: Defense Forces struck the Smerch system that had been shelling Ukrainian fields (Getty Images)
The Defense Forces have destroyed a BM-30 Smerch multiple rocket launcher system that Russian troops had been using to shell the Mykolaiv region for the past three months, according to Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, and the Defense Forces of southern Ukraine.
"In recent days, using strike drones and aerial reconnaissance, the Lasar’s Group unit operating in the area of responsibility of the Pivden Joint Forces Group in the Kherson region destroyed a BM-30 Smerch at a distance of nearly fifty kilometers," the statement reads.
The head of the Regional Military Administration, for his part, added that this very rocket system had been shelling the fields of the Mykolaiv region for the past three months.
The BM-30 Smerch is a heavy Soviet-made multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) with a 300 mm caliber, which entered service in the late 1980s.
It is designed to strike concentrations of manpower, armored vehicles, artillery batteries, command posts, depots, and communication hubs at long distances.
Technically, the BM-30 Smerch is equipped with 12 launch tubes and can fire a full salvo in 38 seconds.
The range of fire depends on the type of rocket, but standard projectiles can reach approximately 70–90 km, while modernized versions can cover up to 120 km or more.
In addition, the system supports various types of munitions — high-explosive, cluster, thermobaric, self-guided, and fragmentation — allowing it to perform a wide range of battlefield tasks.
Over the past day, from October 16 to 17, the Russians lost another 730 servicemen on the front line.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces also destroyed five tanks and 35 artillery systems. More details on the situation in each direction of the front can be found in the RBC-Ukraine report.
