9K331 Tor / SA-15 GAUNTLET - Combat
"Tor" took and continue to take part in hostilities, where they showed their best side. Viktor Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of the Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, called the Tor-M2KM systems supplied to Armenia the only effective means of firing drones during the 2020 military conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. “In the absence of external target designation and centralized control of anti-aircraft combat, they were forced to act autonomously, in dispersed combat formations of small units,” Murakhovsky said. The expert noted that the calculations of the Tor-M2KM air defense system destroyed over 60 aircraft, including six Turkish reconnaissance and strike drones Bayraktar TB2, while the missile consumption rate per target was 1.1-1.2,
Since the beginning of the special military operation (SVO) in Ukraine, the Tor family complexes have been on a round-the-clock combat watch, protecting civilians, combat positions of Russian troops and strategically important objects from air attack weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). They also serve as cover for the more long-range Russian air defense systems - for example, the Buk-M3. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has repeatedly shown footage of the combat work of the Thors, calling the complex "an ultra-reliable shield against attacks by enemy air targets."
Thanks to the work of Russian anti-aircraft gunners, the Bayraktar TB2 UAVs, widely advertised in foreign media, practically ceased to appear over the battlefield in the first months of the NWO. “They scared us: Bayraktar, Bayraktar. It turned out to be one of our simplest targets. It flies in a straight line, at the same speed, at a certain height. Therefore, for us this is the simplest target,” the Russian military department quoted the soldier as saying "Tor", which shot down a Turkish drone already on the second day of the NWO.
Subsequent publications of videos and messages from the military department only confirmed the high effectiveness of its combat use. So, in one of the comments of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation it was said that the Tor-M1 crews detected and destroyed UAVs launched by the enemy under the cover of balloons. On November 24, 2022, footage was shown of Tor-M2U destroying rather large Ukrainian reconnaissance UAVs.
During the battles, air defense crews have to change positions several times per shift, because the intelligence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is on a real hunt for complexes. However, the ability to combine marching and combat modes of operation of the installation reduces the danger to a minimum.
According to the results of combat use, the Tor systems are continuously improving. So, in February 2023, Ilya Rykov, deputy chief designer for the repair and modernization of the Kupol IEMZ, said that thanks to the refinement of the air defense system, he was able to more effectively intercept the shells of American HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems.
In March 2023, Fanil Ziyatdinov, director general of IEMZ Kupol, told TASS that further modernization of the Tor-M2 would allow Russian troops to hit air targets that are still in development. According to him, the applied technical solutions will significantly improve the characteristics of the air defense system for detecting small targets, and further automation of the complex operation in the future will ensure the fulfillment of tasks with little or no operator participation. "He will only have to press the start button, Tor will do the rest himself," Ziyatdinov said.
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