The Serbian Minister of Defence, Aleksandar Vulin, attended the completion of factory reception of the 0-series of the modernized “Oganj” rocket launcher and the test firing in the “Nikinci” Weapons and Military Equipment Testing Centre. As Minister Vulin pointed out after the firing, rocket artillery and its units are one of the most significant Army components. The Minister of Defence said that the Serbian Armed Forces will get one and a half batteries in its composition in a few days, that they will continue the modernization of all “Oganj” systems that the Serbian Armed Forces have a lot of, and that thus our rocket artillery will be significantly improved.

The modernized “Oganj” rocket launcher has significantly increased with the digitalized “Oganj”, a modernization we have been doing for the first time since 1977. In addition to having a new INS (inertial navigation system), and to being digitalized to a great extent and receiving numerous improvements in communication systems, this model has achieved what is most important in modern warfare – it provides a much greater speed of use. It only takes three minutes for the digitalized “Oganj” to fire the weapon load after the arrival of the battalion to the fire position. This is a big change in modern warfare where everything is done in a matter of minutes and seconds.

The development was finished last year. Several companies of the Serbian Defence Industry participate in this project, and the company in charge of the serial modernization is “Prva petoletka” from Trstenik which delivers main sub-systems, and a great part of work is done by the Technical Overhaul Institute “Čačak”. This is highly automated equipment that will significantly improve the capabilities of our artillery, primarily by dramatically reducing preparation time for delivering fire. Completely new digital electronics, inertial navigation system and other sub-systems that accelerate the action of a battery at the fire position have been installed.

The next phase is the modular “Oganj”, which is a weapon with completely new capabilities that our artillery has not had so far, and it is the capability of firing all existing types of unguided rocket projectiles, including the 40 km-range projectiles that have already been developed and 50 km-range rocket projectiles that are being developed, including the rocket with flight path correction. this is Serbian Armed Forces first artillery weapon that can fire guided rockets as well, and as part of the work on the prototype weapon, all sub-systems for preparing, firing and guiding a rocket, such as the ALAS rocket, were integrated.

The “ALAS” programmable guided missile was launched from the container mounted on the modular “Oganj” for the first time, and the launch was successful, as well as the launch of “grad” rockets. This is the basis for further improvement, because the “ALAS” rocket is neither the final nor the most powerful rocket that will be launched from this system. The Military Technical Institute is also developing “KoÅ¡ava 1” and “KoÅ¡ava 2” rockets, which will increase the range of our missile artillery to over 50 kilometres and they will have warheads of great destructive power, capable of destroying hardened targets and significant stationary objects – the Assistant Minister for Material Resources pointed out.

The M-77 Oganj is a 128mm self-propelled multiple rocket launcher developed in the former Yugoslavia. NATO designation is the YMRL-32. Development started in 1968. Prof. The 6 pre-serial production version, based on a FAP 2220 6×6 truck, was shown to the public for the first time in 1975. Serial production started two years later. The M-77 is mounted on FAP 2026 BDS/A 6×6 truck bed. The rocket system is placed on the back of the platform with 32 128mm launch tubes capable of reaching targets 20,600 metres away. Other feature was design that it is caring reload rocket pack of 32 additional rockets that allows the launcher to be reloaded within 3 minutes for second salvo.