An "interesting trophy" was seized by the Ukrainian forces in the liberated city of Izium, Kharkiv region, as the Strategic Communications of AFU describe their new finding.
This is a comprehensive modernization of the Soviet BM-21 "Grad" multiple rocket launchers, which entered service with the russian army in 2012. Compared to its predecessor, the Tornado-G has a greater degree of automation, which reduces the time needed to deploy and prepare the system for fire.
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It is also operated by two crewmen instead of six, its emplacement takes less time, and there is no need in geospatial preparation for the firing task. The Tornado-G is 2.5 to 3 times more effective compared to the "Grad", the StratCom concludes.
According to the Military-Today, the Tornado-G also can fire almost twice as far: the range of specially designed Tornado-G guided rockets with self-guided multi-purpose submunitions is 30 km; and when equipped with newly-developed HE-FRAG rockets, the range extends to 40 km. While Grad can fire only up to 20 km with its rockets only that are also compatible with the Tornado-G.
The website notes that russian army has only small numbers of Tornado-G launchers available, the Grad still prevails. The obsolete system was meant to be replaced by its more advanced modernization, however, it hasn’t happened due to funding problems.
By the way, this is not the first such type MLRS captured in Ukraine. One Tornado-G was seized earlier this year and even labeled as the second top-3 captured russian weapons.
Read more: Advancing Ukrainian Forces Continue Finding Wrecked russian Aircraft, the Modern Su-34 Abandoned
