Russia is investing heavily in 9\u039154 Tornado-S and Lancet cruise munitions to degrade Ukraine’s US M142 HIMARS systems. The United States has announced an additional $400 million arms package to help Ukraine as Russia continues to pound the country’s energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the advanced NASAMS air defense systems, Ukraine’s M142 HIMARS air defense systems form the cornerstone of its offensive. When the Ukrainian President visited the city of Kherson after Ukrainian troops wrested it back from Russia, he thanked the United States for equipping the warring country with M142 HIMARS. The President said the system made a significant contribution to Ukraine’s effort to liberate Kherson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Russians are developing and increasing production of their own MLRS, the Tornado-S, to counter the HIMARS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to reports in Russia, the Russian 9A52-4 Tornado-S systems with a range of 120 km with the ability to guide each missile separately have already gone to the front line, they are much more powerful than the M142 HIMARS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian media claims that Western stockpiles of munitions had almost run out, raising concerns in Kyiv about the future of its military supplies. At the same time, Russian officials and military experts denied reports of Russia’s non-existence of stockpiles. At the same time, the production of artillery and multiple launch missile systems in Russia has increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comparison between Russian 9A52-4 Tornado S and US M142 HIMARS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Russian 9A52-4 Tornado-S, like the American M142 HIMARS, is a multiple launch missile system used to strike targets at longer ranges and inside enemy territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u03a4he US M270 HIMARS is considered operationally inferior to the 9\u041052-4 Tornado-S, according to the Russians. For example, the US M142 HIMARS can fire six GPS-guided 227 mm missiles that can reach 80 kilometers and are accurate to within five to ten meters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast, Russian ground forces’ 9A52-4 Tornado-S systems can launch twelve 300 mm GLONASS-guided rockets at 120 km with the same accuracy as HIMARS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides, the Tornado-S has a reduced launch readiness time of just three minutes, making it much faster and more effective. In addition, it also features new and improved payloads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russian troops used Tornado-S systems during the war in Donbas and again in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. These systems give Russia the same advantage that HIMARS gives the Ukrainians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia will force Ukraine to move its ammunition depots far back and make its supply lines vulnerable, as happened with Russia in the Kiev region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Placing the Tornado-S (range 120 km) along the left bank of the Dnieper will make it difficult for HIMARS to engage and fire from the right bank destroying Russian supply lines from Crimea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, Russia has no way to immediately engage a HIMARS because its artillery does not have a similar range. The aircraft mission does not work because the HIMARS disappears quickly after firing. Now Tornado-S can respond instantly as it deploys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Investment” in Russian Kamikaze drones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A large number of new drones appeared on the Lancets front.’ That announcement came as British intelligence said Russia had exhausted its stockpile of Iranian kamikaze drones widely deployed against Ukraine. Like Iran’s Shahed-136, Russia’s Lancet drone explodes on impact after locating its target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In July 2022, it was reported that the Armed Forces (AF) of the Russian Federation, as part of the Special Military Operation, began using modernized Lancet hovering munitions developed by ZALA Aero to destroy Ukrainian troops’ infantry and equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flight duration of Lancets has been increased to one hour. In addition, the powerful fragmentation warhead of the ammunition after modernization has become more powerful, with an explosive mass of more than five kilograms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZALA Lancet drones are used for both reconnaissance and offensive missions. With a range of approximately 40 kilometers, it can be armed with high explosives and high fragmentation warheads. The drone has intelligence, navigation and communications modules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZALA Aero chief designer Alexander Zakharov said the drone could also be used to attack enemy drones, where at a maximum speed of up to 300km\/h it can hit enemy unmanned aerial combat vehicles (UCAVs) during their flight .<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia claims its Lancet hovering munitions, or suicide drones, have first-of-its-kind anti-laser destruction technology that makes them immune to many anti-drone systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Rostec, \u201cThe Russian Lancet kamikaze drone cannot be damaged by the latest laser weapons due to its built-in laser protection. It is almost impossible to intercept and destroy. Thanks to the built-in anti-laser protection, even the latest anti-drone laser weapons are afraid of this drone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lancets have reportedly been deployed to all Russian units in southern and eastern Ukraine, “in response” to Ukrainian counter-attacks which are set to intensify.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n From the above it appears that the Russians are trying to find an antidote to the murderous American M142 Himars, which the Ukrainians used with great success, contributing decisively to the liberation of the city of Kherson from the Russian Armed Forces. So Moscow has ramped up production of the 9A54 Tornado-S, which the Russians say can launch twelve 300mm GLONASS-guided rockets at 120km with the same accuracy as the M142 HIMARS, which can launch just six 227mm GPS-guided missiles capable of a range of 80km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also built the ZALA Lancet kamikaze drones, which are used for both reconnaissance and offensive missions. With ranges of around 40km, they can be armed with high explosives and high fragmentation warheads, and have intelligence, navigation and communications modules. Finally the drone in question cannot be damaged by the latest laser weapons due to its built-in protection from them, making it almost impossible to intercept and destroy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, all of the above remains to be seen verified in practice by the Russian Armed Forces, as well as to see the American reaction by providing new weapon systems to Ukraine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Russia is investing heavily in 9\u039154 Tornado-S and Lancet cruise munitions to degrade Ukraine’s US M142 HIMARS systems. The United States has announced an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,7,3830],"tags":[3888,3887,3889,58,1156,215,70,1976,3395],"class_list":["post-11156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-science","category-research","category-war-in-ukraine","tag-9a52-4-tornado-s","tag-m142-himars","tag-mlrs","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-war","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11156"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27782,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11156\/revisions\/27782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}