Russo-Ukrainian War: Russia unleashes the TOS-1A

Fourteen months into the Russo-Ukrainian War, Russia remains intriguingly parsimonious in deploying its world-class heavy artillery. This might change. On April 3 Russian media made much ado of a ceremony celebrating the transfer of TOS-1As to Airborne Forces. Hitherto TOS-1As were exclusively in the Radiological-Biological-Chemical Forces’ toolkit. Days later a TOS-1A struck Bakhmut.

“Toss-One-Alpha” to NATO, “Sunshine” to Russians, the TOS-1A is an armoured, self-propelled, ground-assault, multiple-launch-rocket-system firing unusually heavy, unusually short-range, unguided rockets with thermobaric warheads.

Thermobaric explosions have two stages. The first disperses a volatile cloud. The second ignites this cloud. Thermobarics go by misnomers like “flamethrowers” and “vacuum bombs.” Some are called “boiling liquid expanding vapour explosives” (BLEVE). Most are best described as “fuel-air explosives” (FAE) with “metal augmented charges” (MAC), as in the USAF’s MAC-Hellfire missile. Russians prefer: “metallized volumetric explosives.”

By Povergard on 2023 04 11

TOS-1A is an absolutely horrendous weapon of war and cries out for a mutual nations' decision to ban its use
as was mustard gas banned in the Second World War.

By Centrewing on 2023 04 11

I read that Russia is bringing in or already starting to use longer range ones now as well.
I feel sorry for all the people forced into this war, on both sides the Ukrainians did not expect to have a placed comedian Nazi WEF puppet in charge of their country and forcing them to go into this meat grinder and way too many young boys and old men, even their women are being forced without any real training? The Ukrainian people who just try to lay down their weapons and surrender to the Russians to save their own lives, the other Ukrainians shoot them dead along with the 2 Russians who were trying to get them to safety? so sad even the Russian soldiers feel for them and want to help them.
Our WEF Nazi leaders here wanting a world war going is so bad and their rigged elections here to says it all and they want to get rid of Pres. Putin and put in Russia a WEF puppet leader too. As Pres. Putin has said if the UN was really working all this could have been avoided if they had just accepted their ethnic Russians who did not want to be Nazi's this was all part of Russia, Russians living there for hundreds of years but since the 30 years of Ukraine's total history having this country they are being treated badly and have voted twice to separate before which was ignored even by the UN.

By William Kay on 2023 04 12

To Povergard:

Thank you for commenting.

The Americans also have thermobarics. As well, I'm not convinced thermobarics are qualitatively different from high explosive or incendiary ordnance in terms of harm. The TOS-1A combines technologies such that it brings "horrific" sudden barrages down on targets.... but that's warfare.

You're proposal is humanitarian but I fear the argument will be used exclusively to hamper the Russian war effort.

By William Kay on 2023 04 12

To Centrewing:

Thanks for commenting as always.

Yup, I basically agree with what you are saying. The regime in Kiev cannot legitimately be called a "Ukrainian" government. Its a brazen dictatorship - opposition banned - media monopoly - state terrorism - conscript army - and wholly financed by foreign powers. There may be as many as 400,000 Ukrainian casualties. Russia's original demands were reasonable.

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