Wikipedia



The M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (M270 MLRS) is an American armored, self-propelled, multiple rocket launcher.

Since the first M270s were delivered to the U.S. Army in 1983, the MLRS has been adopted by several NATO countries. Some 1,300 M270 systems have been manufactured in the United States and in Europe,^[vague] along with more than 700,000 rockets. The production of the M270 ended in 2003, when a last batch was delivered to the Egyptian Army.



In the early 1970s, the Soviet Union had a clear advantage over U.S. and NATO forces in terms of rocket artillery. Soviet tactics of bombardment by large numbers of truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers (MRLs), such as the BM-21, would saturate a target area with thousands of rockets, ensuring some would hit specific targets while delivering a psychological impact. By contrast, U.S. artillerists favored cannon artillery for its relative accuracy and ammunition conservation over "area fire" rockets, and as a result were left with only a small amount of World War II vintage rocket artillery.^[​2]

This mindset began to change following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which saw high loss rates, especially from rear-area weapons like Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs), as well as the effective Israeli tactic of hitting such sites with MRLs. This combined with the realization that such an experience would happen on a larger scale in the event of war in Europe, in March 1974 the U.S. Army wrote a requirement for a new rocket launcher called General Support Rocket System (GSRS). It would be used to engage enemy air defenses and for counterbattery fire, freeing cannon units to provide close support for ground forces. NATO allies including the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany were consulted on the project, and since they had already been looking to create a similar system independently, their name for it was adopted, changing GSRS to MLRS.^[​2]

Development began in September 1977 by Boeing and Vought Aerospace, and first production models were delivered in August 1982. The first operational M270 battery was formed in March 1983, and the first unit was sent to West Germany that September. Originally, a battery consisted of three platoons with three launchers each for nine launchers per battery; by 1987, 25 MLRS batteries were in service. In the 1990s, a battery was reduced to six launchers.^[​2]