[THEDRIVE] With little fanfare, Ukraine has developed and used a guided artillery rocket in combat with a longer range and heavier warhead than the vaunted Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) munitions provided by the U.S. and allies.
Called the Vilkha-M, it is a modified 7.6m (25-foot) long Soviet BM-30 Smerch multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) artillery rocket.
The Vilkha-M has a range of 110km (68 miles) and a 300mm, 485-pound warhead that can hit targets with great accuracy, Ivan Vinnyk, first deputy head of the National Association of Ukrainian Defense Industries, told The War Zone Tuesday.
By comparison, the GMLRS munitions - fired by the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS and the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) provided to Ukraine - have a range of up to about 80km (about 50 miles) and a 227mm, 200-pound warhead.
"Yes, the Vilkha has been used in combat," Vinnyk said Tuesday during the U.S.-Ukraine Security Dialogue XV conference held at the National Press Club in Washington. He could not disclose the exact location of where the Vilkha-M missiles were used.
In subsequent conversations on Wednesday, Vinnyk told The War Zone that the Vilkha-M modification program began in 2018 and that about 100 units have been produced.
They were first used in combat in May, 2022, he added.
Their precision, he said, is boosted by so-called "gas rudders" - scores of small holes emitting propellant - used to direct the missile on the target via GPS. While the Vilkha-M is said to be quite accurate and a precision munition, just how accurate it is isn't disclosed at this time.
Gas rudders on the Vilkha-M rocket help guide the warhead onto the target via GPS. (Photo courtesy of Ivan Vinnyk)
Questions about the use of the Vilkha-M were raised last week after the occupied Azov Sea port city of Mariupol - some 50 miles away from the nearest Ukrainian units at the time - was hit on successive nights.
While it is possible that GMLRS were used in those attacks, it is not inconceivable to think that the Vilkha-M may have been, but Vinnyk would not divulge that information.