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HomeWorldNo BrahMos, Russia targets Ukraine with rocket launcher Smerch, missiles Kalibr, Iskander

No BrahMos, Russia targets Ukraine with rocket launcher Smerch, missiles Kalibr, Iskander

Indian defence sources say Russia has its own version of anti-ship Brahmos, but not the land-attack ones.

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New Delhi: The Russian invasion of Ukraine began Thursday with an intense attack backed by multiple varieties of rockets, cruise and ballistic missiles targeting Ukrainian defence positions, mostly their air defence infrastructure, runways and airports.

There were multiple videos on social media of missiles being fired and shells recovered from various locations in Ukraine.

— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) February 24, 2022

While Russia has claimed it was undertaking precision strikes, reports from the ground say that civilian positions have been hit.

Remains of rocket parts from civilian areas reveal the Russians fired the Smerch, a powerful multiple rocket-launcher system, which is also used by the Indian Army.

Each unit of the Smerch, which is not guided, is mounted on trucks and can fire about 12 rounds in 38 seconds.

While the Indian variants have a range of about 90 kilometres, it is believed that the Russians have versions with higher capability.

It is also suspected the Russians are using the Urgan multi-rocket launcher system which has 16 tubes in each unit but only about half the range of the Smerch.

Sources in the Indian defence establishment, who are closely monitoring the situation, said the Russians seem to be using a variety of missiles and the prominent ones are the submarine and ship-launched Kalibr cruise missiles and the Iskander tactical ballistic missiles.

Asked if the Russians were also using the Indo-Russia joint venture supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, sources said Moscow did not have them.

They said Russians have their own version of the anti-ship variant of BrahMos but not a land attack one.

Sources explained that the Kalibr seems to be their preferred cruise missile and was also used in 2015 against the Syrians.

They said the missile has a long range and can be fired as far as 2,500 kilometres from the target.

Sources explained the Iskander was also being used by Russian forces and this particular tactical ballistic missile has a range of about 300 to 400 kilometres.

The missile is hooked up to the latest suite of Russian radar systems and is designed to evade enemy missile defences through its ability to correct mid-course.

Ukrainian authorities had in May said that Russia had stationed 36 Iskander medium-range ballistic missile systems along Ukraine’s border.

It was not yet clear whether the Russians are also using their fighter aircraft to launch any kind of missiles but videos of multiple attack helicopters have been reported from various parts of Ukraine.

Sources also said the scale of attack showed that Russia was not invading from one particular direction.


Also read: ‘We could feel the tremors’: Indian students in Ukraine struggle to stay calm, hit by blackouts


 

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