China has begun production of a new truck-mounted rocket artillery unit known as the A100. It is virtually a copy of the Russian 12-round 300mm BM9A52 Smerch rocket launcher. Smerch is the longest-ranged unguided rocket system in the Russian arsenal. The Chinese version uses a Chinese 8x8 truck instead of the MAZ-543 8x8 used by the Russians.--Stephen V Cole