Mysorean rockets were an Indian military weapon. The iron-cased rockets were successfully deployed for military use. The Mysorean army, under Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, used the rockets effectively against the British East India Company during the 1780s and 1790s. Their conflicts with the company exposed the British to this technology further, which was then used to advance European rocketry with the development of the Congreve rocket in 1805.
A Mysorean soldier, using his rocket as a flagstaff (Robert Home, 1793/4).
A painting showing the British forces confronted with Mysorean rockets
Use of rockets in an assault by Mysorean troops on Travancore Line fortification (29 December 1789)
Rocket being lit by a Mysorean soldier (Illustration by Robert Home)
Rocket artillery is artillery that uses rockets as the projectile. The use of rocket artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used. Fire arrows were also used in multiple launch systems and transported via carts. The first true rocket artillery was developed in South Asia by the Tipu Sultan the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. In the late nineteenth century, due to improvements in the power and range of conventional artillery, the use of early military rockets declined; they were finally used on a small scale by both sides during the American Civil War. Modern rocket artillery was first employed during World War II, in the form of the German Nebelwerfer family of rocket ordnance designs, Soviet Katyusha-series and numerous other systems employed on a smaller scale by the Western allies and Japan. In modern use, the rockets are often guided by an internal guiding system or GPS in order to maintain accuracy.
M270 MLRS
Illustration of a Korean rocket launcher of the 1500s
Rocket being lighted by Mysorean soldier (Illustration by Robert Home)
A painting showing the British forces confronted with Mysorean rockets