Success Against M142 HIMARS, Russia Claims MLRS Tornado-S Attracts Export Market

When Ukraine, with the support of the United States, carried out an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) artillery attack on a Russian defense base, it did not take long for Russia to learn the characteristics of HIMARS.

And in order to counter the onslaught of HIMARS rockets, Russia, which has operated the Tornado-S since 2014, claims to have succeeded in increasing the self-propelled MLRS capability in the 130 mm caliber.

Quoted from the website of the Russian news agency Tass - Tass.ru (19/6/2023), it was stated that Soldiers of the Western Military District (ZVO) who used the MLRS Tornado-S succeeded in destroying HIMARS in the special operations zone.

This was disclosed by the deputy head of the calculation with the call sign "99".

“Each projectile has its own data on the target, while in the process of flight the rocket can correct itself, communicate with navigation and satellites, this increases accuracy”, - he said in a recording provided by the Russian Defense Ministry.

MLRS Tornado-S is a modernized version of the MLRS BM-30 Smerch.

The upgrades affect ammo, communications and controls.

As a result, the developers managed to significantly increase the Tornado-S's range, accuracy and firepower.

Like its predecessor, the Tornado-S (Tornado-S 9K515 MLRS) is equipped with 12 launcher tubes for 300 mm caliber rockets.

Rockets on the Tornado-S are able to reach targets at a much farther distance than the Smerch, which is 120 km versus 70-90 km.

It is designed to destroy individual and area targets.

The MLRS Tornado-S is used both in defense and offensive.

The Russian Ministry of Defense refers to the ammunition in the Tornado-S as a smart rocket.

Sources from the Russian Ministry of Defense said the MLRS Tornado-S during special military operations can disable and destroy command posts, weapons, ammunition and fuel depots, communications centers, air defense facilities and other important targets located at significant distances.

Russian artillery crews have also been adaptive in the operation of this MLRS, namely they leave the dangerous area (launch) as quickly as possible after carrying out an attack.

Thanks to the well-coordinated crew of the Tornado-S, they were able to attack again from a different firing position within minutes.

"They never work in the same place repeatedly, and they never use the same hiding area for their vehicles," the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) said on June 3, 2023 that there had been a surge in interest abroad in Russian weapons, including the MLRS Tornado-S system.

FSMTC claims that Russian weapons and military hardware have always exhibited high efficiency and reliability and continue to successfully demonstrate these qualities in real combat.

"Proof of this is the considerable spike in interest in our weapons abroad, in particular fighter jets, attack helicopters, armored vehicles, including some rocket launch systems and others," said the FSMTC.

The Tornado-S is much more powerful than its predecessor MLRS.

This rocket system is capable of destroying an enemy defense area the size of twelve football fields with a complete package, namely a salvo of twelve guidance rockets.

Each rocket projectile can be fired at a different distance and direction.

The fire sector is almost 90 degrees.

According to the official Rosoboronexport presentation, the increased performance of the 9K515 over the Smerch with the same overall weight and energy characteristics of the rocket and warhead has been achieved through increasing the lift-to-drag ratio of the rocket and its control throughout the entire flight path.

Time-to-fire from receiving target data has been reduced to 75 seconds, while full salvo time (for guided rockets) is 33 seconds.

The deviation of the 9K515 guided missile from the target is 3-15 times less than that of the Smerch rocket.

A 5-fold reduction in the personnel involved has been achieved.

The Tornado-S system, which includes the launch vehicle, provides independent ground navigation and survey control, automatic data exchange with command and control vehicles, calculation of fire and flight mission data.

Single launch, full or partial salvo is possible.

Like the 9M544 cluster guided missile designed to destroy light armored vehicles, fixed and mobile single and group targets, including command posts, signal centers, military-industrial facilities, and so on.

Meanwhile, the 9M549 cluster guided rockets with fragmentation submunitions are used to destroy soft targets, including enemy troop bases.

In addition, the MLRS Tornado-S can fire all types of rockets used by the BM-30 Smerch.

The Tornado-S 9K515 is mounted on the MZKT-79306 8×8 vehicle platform.

However, there is also a Tornado-S mounted on the KamAZ-63501 8x8 truck, this variant is called the light Tornado 9A52-4, because in one vehicle there are only six 130 mm rocket launcher tubes.