September 2023, a photo of an unusual military vehicle went viral online, it showcased a previously unseen hybrid of an MT-LB multipurpose armored carrier with an RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launcher, locally referred to as "ship-based bomb thrower."
The other day, a video appeared featuring this rocket system in use, apparently in the war zone in Ukraine. This footage sheds some light on how it works.
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First detail to take note of is that the russians have at least several such self-propelled RBU-6000 mounted on MT-LBs. Let's call it just RBU-6000(sp) for short.
Evidently, the russian military uses not only the standard launcher with 12 rocket sockets but an unconventional 4-barreled version, too. This is an important nuance because the total weight of an RBU-6000 launcher is 3.5 tons, while the maximum payload capacity of an MT-LB is only 2.5 tons.
As it turns out, the launcher has to be reloaded manually, which is logical since usually the ships have special ammunition storage bays beside the stationary RBU-6000 systems, too bulky to be reproduced on a compact armored vehicle.
Manual reloading is not an easy process. Each RGB-60 rocket (underwater bomb) has a caliber 213mm and weighs 113 kilograms. For comparison, an artillery rocket for BM-21 Grad system, typically reloaded by hand, has a moderate weight of 66 kg and still requires several people to handle.
The specifications and concept of RBU-6000 suggest that it simply covers with volley fire a water area large enough to land a hit, the attack range is 5.2 km, max rate of fire is one shot each 2.4 seconds.
Here's one more illustrative comparison. TOS-1A Sontsepyok is one of russia's shortest-range artillery systems, and it still can reach targets from 6 to 10 km away, depending on the type of the rocket used. The short range, however, is compensated with destructive power of thermobaric munitions.
Now the RBU-6000(sp), logically, has to be deployed under cover of night to avoid detection by the adversary and backfire. The precision of this rocket system is well evident in the screenshot below.
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