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| 'A bolt from the blue.' The Russian Armed Forces uses the latest missiles near Kherson |
| 2023-11-10 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by German Polysalov [REGNUM] A video from the Kherson sector of the front has appeared in the public domain , reportedly from the Antonovsky Bridge area. The first footage taken from the air: a group of Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters enters a house in a dilapidated private sector with traces of dense buildings near the bank of the Dnieper. In the next seconds, from a different angle, you can observe a local but powerful explosion - and the “temporary deployment point” with a dozen enemy soldiers under the roof folds up like a house of cards. At the same time, neighboring buildings are practically not affected. Sources of the Telegram channel “Two Majors”, which posted the video on November 7, give an unambiguous assessment of the picture: the missiles (more precisely, missile and bomb weapons) “Grom”, developed quite recently - in the late 2010s, were used in the case. The first meager reports that “Groms”, which previously could only be observed at stands and training grounds, were spotted in the NWO zone, appeared in March of this year. Then another Telegram channel, “Military Informant,” published footage of the wreckage - without, however, explaining where exactly they were found. Now, firstly, you can see something very similar to “Thunder” in action. Secondly, there is an exact geographical reference. Antonovsky Bridge, we recall, connects the Kherson suburb of Antonovka, occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and the city of Aleshki, controlled by our military; the bridge was partially destroyed when the Russian Armed Forces retreated to the left bank of the Dnieper exactly a year ago. Video recording equipment allegedly detected the moment of the Thunder’s flight at the “terminal part of the trajectory” - that is, on approach, immediately before hitting the target. However, it is necessary to make allowances for the quality of the video, from which it is difficult to determine whether an air-to-surface missile or a guided bomb has “arrived,” Sergei Denisentsev, an expert at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (AST), told IA Regnum . If this is really “Thunder” in a missile or bomb version, then our military at the front now has an interesting weapon at its disposal, experts say. THE KING'S "GIFT" “Grom” is a development of the Tactical Missile Weapons Corporation (KTRV, created by presidential decree in the early 2000s on the basis of the Zvezda Design Bureau in Korolev, Moscow Region). The corporation’s services to the Russian military-industrial complex are highly “appreciated” by the United States, the EU and Britain - at the beginning of the Northern Military District, the collective West included KTRV in its sanctions lists. The development is new - in 2015, developers from the Moscow Region just presented materials on a promising guided missile and bomb system. Three years later, the “products” passed state tests, Denisentsev notes. The Grom can be delivered to its destination by Su-34 front-line bombers, Su-35 family fighters and fifth-generation Su-57 aircraft. At the same time, the maximum launch altitude of the Thunder is more than 10 kilometers, the speed at launch is from 504 to more than 1600 km/h. This air-to-surface complex is designed to destroy a fairly large “menu” of targets, both stationary - enemy airfields, factories, bridges, and mobile, such as enemy ships and transport vessels with previously reconnoitered coordinates. FLYING TRANSFORMER The Thunder project provides for the modular construction of aircraft ammunition. This means that it is possible to produce aerial bombs or missiles with different technical characteristics and combat qualities, but with a similar appearance and the same length for all products in the family. This makes it possible to release standardized missiles and bombs. Due to the modular construction of ammunition, using several modules for different purposes, it is possible to produce products of different classes. For example, when replacing the propulsion system with an additional warhead, instead of a cruise missile, you get a gliding bomb, explained military expert, author of the Telegram channel “Russian Engineer” Alexey Vasiliev to Regnum news agency . “Part of the bomb fairing looks like the FAB-500 M-62 aerial bomb of the 1962 model, ” Vasiliev assesses the diagrams and drawings of the “Thunder Bomb”, which are available in the public domain. — Control elements with “wings” have been added to the head fairing, and there is a unified planning and correction module (UMPC). On the rear side of the fairing, either an additional cylindrical part with explosives is added, or a propulsion system of the same size is added.” In total, the Grom complex has three “avatars”. The first is the Grom-E1 guided missile. A product weighing nearly 600 kilograms is capable of delivering a combat charge weighing 315 kg to a range of up to 120 kilometers. This variant is almost twice as effective in combat as the OFAB-250-270 free-fall aerial bomb. The second option is the Grom-E2 guided bomb. It turns out when replacing the rocket propulsion system with an additional high-explosive fragmentation warhead. In total, it has two charges, so their combat load reaches 480 kg. The maximum flight time is about 4.5 minutes, and the launch range reaches 50–65 km. "Grom-E2" in its combat performance is one and a half times superior to the OFAB-500U bomb. The third option is the Grom-E guided bomb, but with a volumetric detonating warhead whose mass has been reduced to 370 kilograms. This is a so-called vacuum or thermobaric bomb. Despite its lighter weight, such a product does not differ in flight performance from the Grom-E2 aerial bomb with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead. The effectiveness of the Grom-E is two times higher than that of the conventional KAB-500 OD guided bomb. WHAT DID THE “ARRIVAL” SHOW? Most likely, it was the missile version of the “Grom” that “flew” to the location of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near the Antonovsky Bridge, believes Alexey Vasiliev. He pointed out: the product entered the ground almost vertically. “This is usually a sign of missiles because they have a dive mode. Aircraft bombs with a unified planning and correction module simply fall smoothly on the wings, and they do not have the energy to make a “slide” in front of the target,” the military expert explained. On the other hand, Vasiliev argues, the “arrival” of a bomb variant is also possible. If the target to be hit was at a shorter distance than the maximum launch range, then the controlled aerial bomb could have sufficient altitude to go into dive mode - and this would allow it to descend vertically. This version is supported by the possibility of launching at a target located in the rear hemisphere. After being reset or launched, “Thunder” - including its “bomb” version - can make a turn towards the target for its subsequent destruction. It is also necessary to take into account the direct dependence of the payload and flight range: the larger the warhead, the shorter the range, and, conversely, the greater the range, the smaller the warhead, notes Vasiliev. There is an opportunity to get closer and hit more effectively. If this is not possible, “we can shoot from afar, reducing the mass of the warhead, and install a propulsion system instead of an additional high-explosive fragmentation warhead.” The last point that needs to be paid attention to is that if the “Thunder” appeared at the disposal of the active army, it was so far as a rather rare weapon. For obvious reasons, there are no figures on supplies and purchases in open sources, notes Sergei Denisentsev. But since the complex is new (the developers from KTRV finally completed testing in 2019), it is unlikely that quite a lot of units have already been produced “in the series,” the source believes. But we are only talking about the beginning of the production of promising weapons, experts point out. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 Wunderwaffen. I've seen dis movie. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2023-11-10 12:24 |