During the study of the control units of the 9M544 guided rocket for the Tornado-S MLRS, which is actively used by the russians during the russia-Ukraine war, in particular for the shelling of Ukrainian cities, traditionally Western components were found. In particular, this information was obtained in August last year, when the remains of the warhead of this russian rocket were analyzed.
Currently, a whole rocket has fallen into the hands of Ukrainian specialists, and Intel products were found among its electronic components. This is confirmed by the detailed photos that Defense Express received. In the photos, you can see the unit of fiber-optic gyroscope ТИУС-500. It is produced by the Optolink enterprise from the city of Zelenograd, Moscow Region.
Read more: 'One-of-a-Kind' russian Guidance System of the 'Tornado-S' Missile is Based on Chips Acquired via AliExpress (Photo)
In the middle of this unit, which is responsible for measuring and controlling the angular velocity of rotation, which is important for ensuring the flight accuracy of the Tornado-S missile, the following microcircuit was found (shown in the photo below):
Its "heart" is the programmable logic integrated circuit Cyclone II EP2C8Q208C8N by Altera, from which they tried to erase the markings. This company was absorbed by Intel in 2015 and it is this IT giant that continues to support and release Cyclone.
The second line of marking is also extremely important, because it contains the code KBBD2Y2101A, which contains all the information about the chip, including the date of manufacture. In this way, we can learn that the chip presented in the photo was produced in early 2021, and the 9M544 guided missile for the Tornado-S MLRS, from which this block was removed, according to available information, was produced in the second half of 2022.
This chip does not belong to military products, it is free for sale and is actually a 'household' microcircuit. Moreover, this chip is actively sold in the russian federation to this day, not to mention the possibility of ordering in other countries, in particular through AliExpress.
If you learn more on the above-mentioned ТИУС-500 electronic unit, then everything becomes much more interesting. In addition to military missiles, it is also used by russians in the Soyuz MS spacecraft, which is currently used to deliver crews to the International Space Station (ISS). In particular, the ТИУС-500 is responsible for controlling the ship's reentry module during atmospheric descent.
That is, this electronic unit controls the most dangerous part of the space flight, when the deviation of the reentry module means the death of the crew. This module enters the atmosphere at a speed of slightly less than 7.9 km/s, while its surface heats up to 2000 Celsius degrees. In these conditions, the safety of the crew depends on the angle at which the reentry module will enter the atmosphere and whether it will be able to maintain the required angle before opening the parachutes.
This process has been put under the control of electronics by the russians, which does not belong to space or even military class of electronics in terms of reliability and failure resistance, but which can be bought even through AliExpress.
It will be interesting to see NASA's reaction to this information, because on September 27 of this year, American astronaut Francisco Rubio should return to earth on the next Soyuz MS-23 spaceship. He was supposed to do this on the russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, but on December 15 of last year, the spacecraft suffered an accident with depressurization of the hull and was returned to earth in unmanned mode.
The story of the ТИУС-500 used in russian guided rocket for the Tornado-S MLRS is interesting because the electronic circuit board itself is made at a completely different technological level. And there are no traces of the marking of the so called "military acceptance" of the Ministry of Defense of the russian federation on it, as well as on the body of the ТИУС-500 electronic unit itself.
To illustrate the real technological level of the electronics of the russian federation, it is possible to refer to other electronic units of the 9M544 guided missile for the Tornado-S MLRS, which are precisely produced directly in the russian federation itself, as evidenced by the corresponding stamps.
In particular, the central places on the russian-made circuit board are occupied by basic matrix crystals Н1537ХМ1 from the Moscow-based enterprise Angstrem (created in 1964 at the Zelenograd Electronics Center as NII-336 or Research Institute-336). This company has already come under US sanctions for manufacturing microcircuits for navigation systems used in russian missiles.
Note that the 1537 crystal series was developed in the USSR in the 80s of the last century. So it can be concluded that without access to Western microcircuits, the russian defense industry in the matter of electronic components remained at the same level as the USSR industry. And maybe this level is even worse, because even on serial boards, russian manufacturers are actively refining with the help of wires what designers failed to do during the design of Soviet microcircuits...
Read more: What is Tornado-S MLRS that the russians Could Use to Terrorize Front-Line Cities in Ukraine
