M72 21mm sub cal training rocket

[spotter]

Although designated M72 this sub cal training round is used by the British.It is a 21mm subcalibre training rocket for the LAW.The Law normaly uses a 66mm rocket and is a one shot disposable rocket system.The subcal round uses a special adapter which is inserted into an empty LAW tube enabling it to fire the 21mm rockets.With the adapter the LAW is reuseable which saves a lot of money in training.The rounds have solid steel heads and have a tracer in the rear .The rounds shown are semi relic and for identification use only the one with the blue strips is to show how the propellant would look.(it is not painted correctly as i do not know what a new round looks like)These are often wrongly described as the internal rocket motors from 66s,3.5\", etc rockets.The aluminum transit tubes are printed \"ROCK SUB...21mm TP-T LAW...M72

Post edited by: spotter, at: 2007/06/19 19:51

 

[roller63]

I found this in my loft (it wasn't lost !) I can see that the original pics here got lost in the crash, so here are a couple of pics of mine. The rocket would originally be a gold or silver anodised finish and marked in black. My one reads : PROP M7 RA 2-35 59A RA 9/77. The propellant tubes were black. The blue fabric tape label reads : RKT 21mm S/C L1A1 37A RA 1/76 this tells us the the rocket and tube are from different batches and dates. Hope this is of some interest, Tony.

 

[roller63]

The item is of course INERT having been fired many years ago.

 

[spotter]

Thanks for ressurecting this post Tony,,ill see if i can find the original pics one night this week...Yours is the first i have seen with the stampings ,and now i know what colour they are ment to be,,thank you for the additional information
if anyone needs one of the tubes (EMPTY) i have a few just drop me a pm

 

[Joerg]

 

[Joerg]

 

[Joerg]

 

[Joerg]

 

[Joerg]

 

[spotter]

Hey i recognise picture #9156 ,cheers joerg saved me lot of hassle trying to find missing pictures,,much appreciated

 

[Chris 42 RQ]

Wow, these are one item I never thought I would identify !

As kids we used to find loads of these out on certain training area's and could never find any clue as to what they were or how they were fired - we knew thwy were fired as a lot of them were all bent up after hitting a target tank !
:woohoo:

 

[bombmonki]

The RA lot number may indicate that the store was manufactured by Namo Raufoss who are the primary manufacture of 66mm M72 series rockets. They also use RAN as a factory identifier.

 

[Garand]

I fired my first one back in 1989, just after we had modified our first launchers. It was a fun piece of kit.

 

[Freaky]

Just want to show you that the 21mm subcalibre also has had some changes during the time. The two at the top is the old spec and the one at bottom is the newest type.
Yes I got one fore spare

Cheers
Freaky

 

[Stray]

Isn't that the m73 training round? 35mm not 21?

Btw are the motors tubular or just cylindrical grains? (in both the 21mm and 35mm.)

 

[Stray]

Does anyone have pictures with different views of the rear of the 21mm rocket? or "cutaways" (even drawings)?

 

[Stray]

Figured there might be a couple of people out here interested in seeing some original patents for the rockets.
http://www.google.com/patents/US3487780
Modification to make them cheaper:
http://www.google.com/patents/US3722413