Rocket artillery Rocket artillery is a type of artillery equipped with rocket launchers instead of conventional guns or mortars . Types of rocket artillery pieces include multiple rocket launcher s . History . The use of rocket s as some form of artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used ( albeit mostly as a psychological weapon ) . Fire arrows were also used in multiple launch systems and transported via carts . Devices such as the Korean Hwacha were able to fire hundreds of fire arrows simultaneously . The use of medieval rocket artillery was picked up by the invading Mongols and spread to the Ottoman Turks who in turn used them on the European battlefield . Metal - cylinder rocket artillery . The earliest successful utilization of modern - style rocket artillery is associated with Tipu Sultan of Mysore . Tipu Sultan ' s father Hyder Ali successfully established the powerful Sultanate of Mysore and introduced the first iron - cased metal - cylinder rocket . Hyder Ali ' s son Tipu Sultan successfully used these metal - cylinder rocket s against the larger forces of the British East India Company during the Anglo - Mysore Wars especially during the Battle of Pollilur . The Mysorean rockets of this period were much more advanced than what the British had seen , chiefly because of the use of iron tubes that tightly packed the gunpowder propellant ; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile ( up to 2 km range ) . According to Stephen Oliver Fought and John F . Guilmartin , Jr . in " Encyclopædia Britannica " ( 2008 ) : " Hyder Ali , prince of Mysore , developed war rockets with an important change : the use of metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder . Although the hammered soft iron he used was crude , the bursting strength of the container of black powder was much higher than the earlier paper construction . Thus a greater internal pressure was possible , with a resultant greater thrust of the propulsive jet . The rocket body was lashed with leather thongs to a long bamboo stick . Range was perhaps up to three - quarters of a mile ( more than a kilometre ) . Although individually these rockets were not accurate , dispersion error became less important when large numbers were fired rapidly in mass attacks . They were particularly effective against cavalry and were hurled into the air , after lighting , or skimmed along the hard dry ground . Hyder Ali ' s son , Tipu Sultan , continued to develop and expand the use of rocket weapons , reportedly increasing the number of rocket troops from 1 , 200 to a corps of 5 , 000 . In battles at Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British . " After Tipu ' s eventual defeat in the Fourth Anglo - Mysore War , the Mysore iron rockets were captured by the British . These rockets were influential in British rocket development , inspiring the Congreve rocket , which were soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars , including at the Battle of Waterloo . Ironically , the technology of metal - cylinder missiles developed by Tipu Sultan contributed to the defeat of his ally Napoleon at Waterloo . Modern era . World War II . Modern rocket artillery was first employed during World War II , in the form of the German Nebelwerfer and Soviet Katyusha - series . The Soviet Katyushas , nicknamed by German troops Stalin ' s Organ because of their visual resemblance to a church musical organ and alluding to the sound of the weapon ' s rockets , were mounted on trucks or light tanks , while the early German Nebelwerfer were mounted on a small wheeled carriage which was light enough to be moved by several men and could easily be deployed nearly anywhere , while also being towed by most vehicles . The Germans also had self - propelled rocket artillery in the form of the Panzerwerfer and Wurfrahmen 40 which equipped half - track armoured fighting vehicle s . An oddity in the subject of rocket artillery during this time was the German " Sturmtiger " , a vehicle based on the Tiger I heavy tank chassis that was armed with a 380 mm rocket mortar . The Western Allies of World War II employed little rocket artillery . During later periods of the war , British and Canadian troops used the Land Mattress , a towed rocket launcher . The United States Army built and deployed a small number of T34 Calliope and T40 Whizbang rocket artillery tanks ( converted from M4 Sherman medium tanks ) in France and Italy . In 1945 , the British Army also fitted some M4 Shermans with two 60 lb RP3 rocket s , the same as used on ground attack aircraft and known as " Tulip " . In the Pacific , however , the US Navy made heavy use of rocket artillery , adding to the already intense bombardment by the guns of heavy warships to soften up Japanese - held islands before the US Marines would land . On Iwo Jima , the Marines made use of rocket artillery trucks in a similar fashion as the Soviet Katyusha , but on a smaller scale . Post - World War II . Israel fitted some of their Sherman tanks with different rocket artillery . An unconventional Sherman conversion was the turretless Kilshon ( " Trident " ) that launched an AGM - 45 Shrike anti - radiation missile . The Soviet Union continued its development of the Katyusha during the Cold War , and also exported them widely . Modern rocket artillery such as the US M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System is highly mobile and are used in similar fashion to other self - propelled artillery . Global Positioning and Inertial Navigation terminal guidance systems have been introduced .