80mm Medusa rockets

[Colonial-Marine]

I'm looking for any information available on the 80mm (or 81mm by some sources) rocket series marketed with the name "Medusa" for some time. They were commonly associated with the Italian A129 attack helicopter and likely would have competed ubiquitous 70mm Hydra series during that timeframe. Evidently there weren't many customers although they may have seen some limited use with the Italian Army.



Hard finding pictures of the actual rockets but here is a promotional shot of the A129 "International" intended for export. Starboard side has a quad HOT launcher + Medusa rocket pod while port side has quad Hellfires + Hydra rocket pod. The pod used here carries 12 rockets.

I think these 80mm or 81mm rockets are directly related to the Oerlikon SNORA series 81mm rockets which were offered for a variety of air and ground use. I haven't found details on if there are any differences between the two.

Link to a thread on the Oerlikon rockets here:
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/oerlikon-81-mm-multiple-rocket-system.23140/

 

[TomS]

I'm looking for any information available on the 80mm (or 81mm by some sources) rocket series marketed with the name "Medusa" for some time. They were commonly associated with the Italian A129 attack helicopter and likely would have competed ubiquitous 70mm Hydra series during that timeframe. Evidently there weren't many customers although they may have seen some limited use with the Italian Army.

View attachment 746886

Hard finding pictures of the actual rockets but here is a promotional shot of the A129 "International" intended for export. Starboard side has a quad HOT launcher + Medusa rocket pod while port side has quad Hellfires + Hydra rocket pod. The pod used here carries 12 rockets.

I think these 80mm or 81mm rockets are directly related to the Oerlikon SNORA series 81mm rockets which were offered for a variety of air and ground use. I haven't found details on if there are any differences between the two.

Link to a thread on the Oerlikon rockets here:
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/oerlikon-81-mm-multiple-rocket-system.23140/

Christopher Chant's Modern Air Weapons (1988) has an entry for Medusa as a SNIA BDP product sandwiched between their 51mm and 122mm offerings. The entry for SNORA in the same book mentions that it was jointly developed with SNIA BPD and Oerlikon, so it's a fair bet that these are the same basic rocket.

The entry for Medusa talks about an in-development submunition warhead weighing 10 kg with 11 AT-2 anti-tank submunitions. But this AT-2 must not be the German one, since that was >100mm in diameter and >2.2 kg.

 

[TomS]

Photos of the relevant entry.

 

[TomS]

I happen to also have a copy of Jane's Air Launched Weapons that draws a distinction between the original SNIA BPD 81mm rocket and Medusa, which included the electronic management system as well as the rockets themselves. Around 1990, Medusa was reported in production, but no user details ever emerged and I'd guess it was dropped fairly quickly.

 

[TomS]

Two images from that Jane's article.



The long submunition warhead had two options -- an anti-tank bomblet and an anti-personnel/anti-materiel bomblet. In each case, there were 11 submunitions in each rocket. (Hydra 70 had a similar submunition warhead, the M261.)

One note about caliber: this was definitely an 81mm rocket. The confusion may stem from the fact that Aerea made a series of launchers for it with the number 80 in their product names. Not sure why, but this also happened with Aerea's 51mm rocket launchers, which were designated with 50 rather than 51. Note that the actual SNIA launcher shown here was 81 HLA 12 (81mm, helicopter and light aircraft, 12 rounds)

 

[Voltzz]

I think these 80mm or 81mm rockets are directly related to the Oerlikon SNORA series 81mm rockets which were offered for a variety of air and ground use. I haven't found details on if there are any differences between the two.

From IDR 2/ 1989:

Medusa differs from Snora in a number of ways. In response to an Italian Army requirement, SNIA BPD initially sought to improve the Snora warheads effectiveness on the target. Subsequently, aerodynamic improvements were made: the number of fins was reduced from four to three and their aspect ratio increased. In addition, the conic shape of the Snora warhead was replaced with a more streamlined one. All this enabled the maximum range to be extended from ten to 12km. SNIA BPD also found a way of increasing the mass of the explosive charge, which now fills not only the cylindrical part of the warhead as in Snora, but a large part of the nose cone as well.

The IDR article and a bunch of other stuff on Medusa can be found in this warthunder forum thread that for some reason does not show up in google searches.