The rocket launcher C90 It has been part of the arms shipments from Spain to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion and has become one of the most valued by the Ukrainian Army for its effectiveness against armored vehicles, its ease of use and its economical cost.
His popularity among Ukrainian soldiers is such that he has even acquired the nickname 'The Hispanic', as confirmed by the manufacturer to El Mundo. This is Installa company based in Zaragoza and a staff of about 250 workers, responsible for the different variants of this rocket launcher that It began to be used by the Spanish Army in the 90s.
The C90 is a single-use disposable rocket launcher which allows a soldier to approach a target, fire, leave the launch tube and quickly move away from the danger zone. It has a range of 350 meters against precise targets and 700 meters against area targets. It is the caliber rocket launcher 90mm lightest in the world weighing only 5.3 kilograms, two less than other similar weapons available.
'El Hispano' can be transported and operated by a single person. It is the projectile that has the fuel and the engine for propulsion to the target. You can use different types of rocket-propelled grenades: anti-tank, dual-purpose (anti-armor and fragmentation), smoke (to create a column of smoke) and anti-bunker. Its penetration, variable depending on the type of grenade, reaches 500 mm through armor steel and 1,000 mm against concrete and it is a low recoil weapon with less than 4 J. It also has a foldable 2X optical viewfinderincluded in the disposable launcher tube, and can use two types of night vision, the VN38-C (image intensifier tube) and the VN-IR (thermal camera), which are assembled and disassembled on the battlefield in seconds, without the need for alignment, through a mechanical interface integrated into the visor itself.
The container is unusable after the shot, but one of the variants manufactured by Instalaza is reusable. He C90 reusable It weighs 3.9 kg without ammunition and has two types of sights: 2.5x optical sight and 2.5x electro-optical sight called e-IVISION, with a selectable reticle depending on the type of ammunition used. shoot. This variant is also compatible with over-pressure ammunition, designed to maximize the destructive effect in closed spaces and used against confined environments such as buildings, bunkers, caves and tunnels. The last of its variants is the CS90, which has remote firing capability and can make fire from very small enclosed spaces.
In addition to its ease of use and effectiveness, 'El Hispano' stands out for its low cost. Each one of them rounds the 5,000 eurosa very small figure compared to the Javelin manufactured by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin that the United States has provided to Ukraine. This portable anti-tank guided missile system has greater capabilities than the C90, but is much more expensive. Each Javelin costs around $165,000 and each shot ranges between $40,000 and $80,000.