SOME ASPECTS CONCERNING TESTING AND ASSESSING OF THE AUTOMOBILE PLATFORMS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAROM WEAPON SYSTEM

摘要

Since a NATO member, Romania developed new weapon systems, to face the demands of the modern battlefield. In this respect, Romania developed a weapon system having as its main component a multiple rocket launcher, able to deliver its fire at ranges of 40 ... 60 km. Nevertheless, several rocket launchers won't be, by themselves, a weapon system. Therefore, the LAROM weapon system is completed with an ammunition carrier-and-loader and a fire-control vehicle. In lack of a reliable carrying vehicle, after acquiring some rocket launchers, MoD gave up the program and asked the system's integrator to look for better solutions in this respect. So, at its turn, the integrator (S. C. AEROSTAR S.A. Bacau) looked for an improved carrying vehicle. Consequently, S.C. ROMAN S.A. Brasov, issued three brand new 6x6 carrying vehicles that are Euro 3, MAN engine powered, all of them having ZF, manual shifting gearboxes. The paper presents the basics of the testing programs that have been developed by the LACEBAT Testing Lab of the Military Automotive and Logistics Department, from the Military Technical Academy, Bucharest. It also provides comparative data between the old and the new powered weapon system, i.e. the rocket launcher itself (since in the old powered version only the rocket launcher was manufactured).