HB-11 series

HB-11/12
A towed HB-11/12 multiple rocket launcher at the Son Tay Military Museum.
Type	Multiple rocket launcher
Place of origin	Menghe
Service history
In service	1963-present
Used by	See "Operators"
Wars	Menghean War of Liberation Dzhungestani Civil War Polvokian Civil War Ummayan Civil War
Production history
Produced	1963-2003
Specifications
Weight	645 kg
Crew	5
Breech	rocket tube (12x)
Elevation	-4/+55 degrees
Traverse	+/- 20 degrees

The HB-11 (Menghean: 화전 발사기, Hwajŏn Balsagi, "Rocket Launcher") is a root designation applied to a family of multiple rocket launchers developed in Menghe. These include man-portable, towed, and self-propelled launchers, all of them compatible with the same family of H-11 110mm rockets. Once widely used in the military of the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe, they have now been relegated mostly to small special-purpose or reserve units.

H-11 Rocket family

All launchers in the HB-11 family share the same H-11 rocket family, which has a caliber of 11 centimeters (110mm) and is light enough to be easily handled and loaded by a single person. The first rockets used by the system were simply designated H-11GP and had a simple high-explosive charge. This served as the main ammunition type for the HB-11 for most of its service life.

In 1983 a new ammunition type was introduced, bearing the designation H-11Yŏ. It replaced the high-explosive fragmentation warhead with a more powerful thermobaric charge. By removing oxidizer from the mix and fitting narrower warhead walls, this greatly improved the rocket’s effectiveness against personnel in fortified positions, but made it less effective against even lightly armored vehicles. The 1990s brought the more complex H-11J, which carried 28 anti-tank submunitions with a diameter of 30 millimeters.

To further increase the system’s versatility, designers developed minelaying cartridges compatible with the HB-11 launcher. The first of this type was the H-11/1, a modification of the H-11JM which substituted small anti-personnel mines for the anti-tank submunitions and retained the full range of 8 kilometers. Later in the 2000s this was supplemented by the HB-11G and HB-11DCh, mine-dispensing canisters with a heavier payload. The former contains 56 anti-personnel mines, the latter 5 anti-tank mines using the Misznay-Schardin effect to punch through the thin undersides of enemy armored vehicles. Because their propellant is greatly reduced in comparison with the heavier warhead, these rockets have a range of less than 100 meters, and would be used to rapidly set up minefields in front of prepared defenses.

Launch platforms

HB-11/1

The HB-11/1 is a special-purpose launcher consisting of a single 110mm launch tube. The entire mount, including its tripod and telescopic sight, weighs 27 kilograms and can be broken down into three pieces. It is similar in performance to a 120mm mortar like the SB-120 Type 84, but is less accurate and has a longer minimum range and a lower rate of fire, while firing bulkier ammunition. Its main advantage over the SB-120 is its reduced weight, which makes it more portable. It was primarily issued to airmobile and special forces units, where its portability delivered larger benefits.

HB-11/12

The HB-11/12 was the first multiple rocket launcher in the HB-11 series to enter service. It has twelve launch tubes in a 3×4 grid, and is towed on two wheels with a simple A-frame carriage. The empty launcher weighs only 602 kilograms, allowing even light utility vehicles to tow it, and the five-person crew can also move the launcher around by hand over intermediate distances.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the HB-11/12 was the main divisional rocket artillery system in the Menghean People's Army, with each motorized or mechanized division containing a single battalion with 18 towed launchers. From 1977 onward, these launchers were replaced by H12G2B40 Ubak multiple rocket launchers, which have greater range, greater mobility, and a larger number of rocket tubes. Only a small number of Homeland Defense reserve units still operate the HB-11/12.

H11G1B12

This was the first self-propelled launch system for the H-11 rocket family, consisting of an HB-11/12 launcher on the back of a Chŏnsŏ G586 4×4 light utility lorry. The vehicle crew manually aim the launcher with hand crank controls and manually fire it with a hand crank at the end of a 40-meter cable. The crew of the vehicle was reduced to four, with an additional four crew members riding in a rocket transport vehicle to assist with reloading. The H11G1B12 was introduced in 1985 and is no longer in active service in Menghe.

H11G2B80 Byŏkdol

Nicknamed Byŏkdol, or "Brick," this unusual vehicle consists of an 80-rocket launch array mounted on the hull of a JCh-2 medium tank. It has a crew of three: one driver in the hull, and a gunner and commander who sit in the flattened turret-like structure under the launcher. The launcher has double the rate of fire of the standard HB-11/12, and achieves this higher firing rate by alternating rocket launches from the left and right side of the rocket array.

The H11G2JS battery command post is also based on the JCh-2 chassis. It contains rudimentary fire control equipment for indirect fire missions, but for the most part the launch vehicles in the battery would conduct direct-fire missions using their onboard telescopic sights.

The H11G2 system, made up of the H11G2B80 launcher and the H11G2JS battery command post, was used as a corps-level asset, grouped into an Assault Vehicle Battalion in the corps's Engineer Regiment. In this respect, it served as a 1:1 replacement for the JCh-2HB flamethrower tank, and fulfilled a similar role: the battalion or its composite batteries would be sent forward to support a breakthrough effort on the front lines, delivering heavy direct fire against enemy fortifications. While it had a considerably greater range than the JCh-2HB, allowing it to deliver fire from a safe distance, the "Byŏkdol" also had a long minimum range stemming from the rockets' flatter trajectory, leaving it vulnerable to infantry at close range.

H11G3B12

An updated successor to the H11G1B12, this vehicle uses the Chŏnsŏ G596 chassis, an airborne-capable variant with a folding cab. It also has an integrated and automated fire-control system which allows the three-person crew to aim the launcher at an assigned set of coordinates from inside the cab. It is mainly used by Menghean heavy airborne brigades, as it offers a shorter minimum range than the H12G3B12 system but delivers a similar mass of high explosive per volley.

H11G4B16 Ŏbu

The aptly-named Ŏbu, or "fisherman," is a special multiple rocket launcher system designed to protect coastal installations against frogmen, UUVs, and SDVs. For this purpose, it fires the special H-11PR depth charge rocket, which has a reduced propellant volume and a 4-kilometer maximum range. The 16-tube launcher is mounted on the rear of a Samsan S915 8×8 medium utility lorry which includes an enclosed fire-control and sonobuoy monitoring module, allowing a single vehicle's crew to receive information on possible undersea threats from radio or cable datalinks and remotely aim the launcher at an intercept point calculated by the onboard computers. Typically, the crew of an Ŏbu launcher would fire rockets in separate volleys of eight, so as to keep a second salvo at the ready if the first salvo fails to destroy the target. The rockets have blast-heavy warheads, and rely on shock waves rather than shrapnel to incapacitate their targets.

Operators

• Dzhungestan
• Menghe
• Polvokia
• Qusayn
• Template:Country data Ummayah