Veterans Today/Damascus: Russian contacts in Damascus have asked us to pass on to our very good friends (really) in Turkey that the armor seeker/killer missiles for the Smersh, range 90km, are deployed with all of Idlib and adjacent areas of Turkey as well in range.

One salvo will destroy a tank unit or an entire battalion of Patriot missiles and do it from beyond the range of any retaliation.  Russia used these weapons in 2014 and 2015 to destroy the main formations of ISIS, done in days.

VT’s own observation, which we pass on, is simple.  We know that Erdogan sent units he suspected were involved in the coup attempt against him into Idlib. We know they have 2nd rate equipment and 3rd rate leaders, Erdogan using this as an opportunity to eliminate his enemies in the Army and then settle it all with Putin.

Erdogan may be crazy…crazy like a fox.

It was all theatre.

The Smerch system is rated as the most powerful MLRS in the world. Its purpose is the defeat of manpower, military equipment, fortifications and command and control posts at ranges from 20 to 70 km.

The system was developed in the early 1980s by the State Research and Production Enterprise Splav in collaboration with more than 20 other enterprises of the USSR and in 1987 it was adopted by the Soviet Army.

Currently, the Smerch MLRS is in service with the armies of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Representatives of India and China showed interest in acquiring this system.

MLRS 9K58 “Tornado” – video

MLRS 9K58 “Smerch” includes a launcher 9A52-2,300 mm rockets, fire control system, transport and loading machine 9T234-2, training aids and a set of arsenal equipment. The launcher consists of an artillery unit and a four-axle chassis of an all-terrain vehicle MA3-543M. The layout is classic.

The artillery unit is mounted in the stern of the wheeled chassis, in front of the left are the driver’s cab, the engine-transmission compartment, and the crew cabin, in which radio communications and fire control equipment are mounted.

The artillery unit includes a package of 12 tubular guides, a rotary base, lifting, rotary and balancing mechanisms, sights, an electric drive, and auxiliary equipment. The guides are smooth-walled tubes equipped with a screw U-shaped groove for the promotion of shells.

Guiding mechanisms using power drives induce a package of guides in a vertical plane in the range of angles from 0 ° to + 55 °. The angle of horizontal fire is 60 ° (30 ° to the left and right of the axis of the machine). Between the wheels of the third and fourth bridges, hydraulic bearings are mounted on which the stern of the launcher is hung to increase its stability during firing.

The rockets developed by GNPP “Al

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