This promotional film for the Bofors SR-375 anti-submarine rocket system dates to the 1960s. The Swedish system was deployed with the Indian Navy in the 1970s. It is a forward throwing rocket launcher which is deployed using sonar. Anti-submarine mortars and rocket launchers are essentially artillery pieces deployed on ships for the purpose of sinking submarines by a direct hit with a small explosive charge. They are often larger versions of the mortar or rocket launchers used by infantry and fire a projectile in relatively the same manner. They were created during World War II as a development of the depth charge and work on the same principle. The film uses animation to show the full operation of the weapons system, and shows the unit’s proximity fuse at about 7:50. At 8:35, a four-barreled rocket launcher is seen aboard a ship, capable of traversing 348 degrees. At 10:12, the hoisting system for rockets is shown as it would appear aboard a ship, with rockets moved from the magazine to the launcher with efficiency. At 11:40 the unit is seen fired at sea from a large warship.
The Bofors anti-submarine rocket launcher was used until 1980 with the Swedish Navy. It had two or four barrels and fired a 550-pound projectile up to 3,800 yards (3,500 m). Due to the poor sonar conditions of the Baltic Sea mortars or rocket projectors still retain a place next to torpedoes. The former Soviet Navy (and by extension, the Russian Navy) is the largest user of anti-submarine mortars. Keeping with the Soviet idea that weapons should be simple and cheap, several versions of rocket-propelled anti-submarine mortars were developed. Trials were also conducted on destroying oncoming torpedoes with anti-submarine mortars. The most common is the RBU-6000, which fires twelve 160-pound projectiles in a horseshoe pattern up to 6,500 yards (5,900 m) away. There was also a more extreme version, the nuclear SUW-N-1, though this is more technically an anti-submarine rocket. It had anti-surface and land-attack uses as well.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
