H30G1B12 Chŏndung

The H30G1B12 Chŏndung ("Thunder") is a type of twelve-barrel 300mm multiple rocket launcher developed in Menghe. It is the successor to the H23G1B18 Pokpo, and primarily serves in corps-level rocket artillery brigades. Like its successor, it is intended to engage both front-line and rear-area targets, including large-unit headquarters, surface-to-air missile batteries, and ammunition and supply depots. It can fire unguided rockets out to a range of 140 kilometers, and its extended-range guided rockets can reach ranges of 160 kilometers.

Description

Like the H23G1B18 Pokpo before it, the H30G1B12 Chŏndung is designed to fulfill a mix of missions at the discretion of the corps commander. With its high-explosive, thermobaric, and cluster munition rockets, it can rapidly saturate a target area with destructive fire, useful when bombarding an enemy defensive position immediately prior to an assault by friendly forces. It can also use these same ammunition types to strike soft area targets in the enemy's divisional or corps rear area, including surface-to-air missile batteries, if their approximate coordinates are relayed from forward observers or aircraft. Finally, like many other Menghean multiple rocket launchers, the H20G1B12 has the ability to create rocket-deployed anti-tank and anti-personnel minefields, which can be used to obstruct an enemy unit's advance or cut off its path of retreat.

The launch vehicle is built on the Taekchŏn T512 8×8 heavy utility chassis. It has good offroad mobility and a long travel range, both of which assist with prolonged shoot-and-scoot operations. The launch vehicle has a crew of four, and contains its own fire-control computer, allowing a single launcher to execute a fire mission independently. The launcher can traverse 30 degrees left or right of center, and can elevate up to 55 degrees. It can depress to 0 degrees for travel, but it cannot fire from this angle; the minimum range for most rocket types is 40 kilometers. Rockets are fired at three-second intervals to reduce shaking and improve accuracy, meaning that a single barrage can be fired in slightly over 30 seconds.

While the H23G1B18's rockets are loaded individually into the rear of the reusable launcher, the H30G1B12's rockets are stored in single-use factory-sealed pods. To reload the launch vehicle, a reloading vehicle with a crane pulls up alongside, removes the empty rocket pods, and installs two new rocket pods, which it carries on its own flatbed chassis. This process can be completed in as little as 10 minutes.

When preparing to fire, the H30G1B12 launch vehicle enters a clear area, lowers its rear hydraulic jacks for stability, elevates the launcher, and fine-tunes the elevation and traverse to hit the assigned target coordinates. This process can be completed in under three minutes. Once the launcher completes its barrage, it can prepare to move again in two minutes, allowing the launch unit to avoid counter-battery fire.

Ammunition

Much like other Menghean multiple rocket launchers in its generation, the H30G1B12 Chŏndung can fire a wide variety of rocket types. These rockets are stored in factory-sealed pallets of six rockets each, with a single Chŏndung launch vehicle carrying two pallets at once. Each rocket is approximately 7.8 meters long.

Most rockets in the H-30 family have a simple inertial correction system. During the rocket motor burn phase, when most dispersion error takes place, a simple onboard inertial system corrects the rocket's trajectory using a single movable control surface on the nose. A Buksŏng export brochure claims that this guidance system produces a circular error probable of 80 meters, such that 93.7% of rockets in a salvo (at least 11 out of 12) will fall within a circle 320 meters across. Although this is much less accurate than satellite-guided or even high-end inertial-guided short-range ballistic missiles, it is sufficiently accurate to thoroughly saturate the area within the 2× CEP circle if each rocket has a destructive radius 100 meters in diameter. This provides a good balance of concentration and dispersal of destructive effects at a reasonable cost.

For example, each H-30Ch rocket disperses Chŏl-u submunitions over a circle with a diameter of 100 meters, averaging one submunition per 11.8 square meters or two expected hits on a typically-sized MBT or IFV hull. When engaging soft targets such as ammunition depots or frontline airfields, the detonation altitude can be increased, widening the dispersion area to cover more ground with the submunition's fragmentation effects.

Some reports indicate that the H-30B rocket, with Buŏng-i submunitions, is an exception to this rule; during its spiraling descent, each submunition can scan a circle 100 meters across, and each H-30B rocket carries 16 such submunitions. Thus, it may be possible for a single to fire individual or paired rockets at each 2× CEP kill area, but fire at multiple kill areas from a single position.

To engage precision targets, the H-30GPY rocket incorporates a CSNS guidance system. It has a claimed CEP of only 10 meters, sufficient to engage small hardened targets like bunkers and reinforced concrete structures. It is, however, more expensive and more susceptible to CSNS jamming.

Designation	Warhead type	Warhead mass	Guidance	Minimum range	Maximum range
H-30GP	High explosive	240 kg	Inertial	40 km	140 km
H-30Yŏ	Thermobaric	210 kg	Inertial	40 km	140 km
H-30B	16× Buŏng-i	192 kg	Inertial	40 km	140 km
H-30JI	448× JIG-J	197 kg	Inertial	40 km	140 km
H-30JCh	25× AT mine	152 kg	Inertial	35 km	120 km
H-30Ch	672× Chŏl-u	230 kg	Inertial	40 km	140 km
H-30GPY	High explosive	120 kg	CSNS	30 km	160 km

Organization

Unlike the Pokpo before it, the H30G1B12 was designed from the ground up with Jinri CFDS compatibility in mind. In place of a battery-level forward observer vehicle, it relies on fire support coordination vehicles in individual front-line companies to determine coordinates for rocket artillery strikes and issue fire-correction information. Another difference is that the individual H30G1B12 launch vehicles each carry their own fire-control computers, which can calculate the optimal elevation and bearing based on target coordinates and meteorological data from other units. A battery command vehicle still exists within the formation, but instead of performing all centralized fire-control tasks, it assigns coordinates to individual launchers. Because the twelve inertially-guided H-30 rockets from a single launcher can fully saturate a 2× CEP area, the battery command vehicle typically assigns separate but adjacent kill zones to each launcher in order to maximize the area affected by a barrage.

In addition to its command facilities, each H30G1 battalion includes a meteorological survey vehicle to collect data on high-altitude wind and pressure and a security company in armored cars to protect launch units against enemy special forces and paratroops. A typical H30G1 brigade also includes a battery of DGP-35-2 towed anti-air guns to protect against helicopters and cruise missiles.

Operators

• Menghe