If you thought turning an old, used car into a mobile missile system was something only seen in movies like Mad Max, think again. Ukrainian forces near Bakhmut have done just that, transforming a BMW E38 into an improvised multi-barrel rocket launcher (VRS) by mounting the killer hardware where the trunk lid used to be.
The result is an unusual but surprisingly effective vehicle that fires rockets and then disappears before the enemy can fire back. This wild adaptation comes as a result of the lack of standard military equipment, which forced military units to turn to creative solutions.
Camouflage and mode of action
Images and videos circulating on social media show this unusual combination in action, after it was first spotted in late 2023. Painted in grey-green camouflage, the car blends in with its surroundings, its launch tubes positioned horizontally along the roof as it moves between firing positions.
Once the team selects a location, they pull stabilizers from the launcher frame to keep the BMW stable, turn a crank to point the tubes skyward, and duck to safety before the rockets take off. The entire system sacrifices armor for speed, allowing for the hit-and-run tactics that are essential in modern warfare where rapid fire location detection has become the norm.
It’s not the first BMW conversion
The idea of mounting rocket launchers on civilian vehicles is not entirely new in Ukraine. Earlier improvised platforms involved mounting launch tubes on pickup trucks and light vehicles to provide short-range indirect fire support to infantry units.
This isn’t even the first BMW-based weapon we’ve seen in the Ukrainian war. Back in 2022, as Carscoops reported, a BMW 6 Series convertible was donated and repurposed by installing a heavy machine gun in its trunk