Belarus to Receive Third Battery of Almaz-Antei Tor-M2 / SA-15 From Russia

According to the Belarusian Defense Minister Yuri Zhadobin, Russia will deliver the third battery of short-range Almaz-Antei Tor-M2 / SA-15 Surface-to-Air Missiles Air Defense Systems before the end of 2013.

The Tor family of SAMs can be used to defend against aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles, precision-guided munitions and even some ballistic targets.

Belarus already has two batteries of Tor M2 which were delivered in 2011 and 2012. A Tor-M2 battery is supposed to consist of:

• Four Transporter Erector Launcher And Radar (TELARs)
• One mobile command post
• Various support vehicles

 

The most recent Tor-M2 was preceded by the Tor-M1, each of which carried eight vertical launch cells in the turret with Fakel 9M331 cold-launched missiles:

• Weight of 165 kg
• Warhead of 14.5 kg
• Length of 2.9 m
• Diameter of 0.23 m
• Maximum range of 12 km
• Altitude of 6 km
• Speed of Mach 2.5

Improvements of the Tor-M2 over its predecessor include:

• Improved ability to defend fixed infrastructure / installations in addition to protecting mobile armored formations
• New phased array radar can track up to 48 targets
• Improved electro-optical tracking system
• New 9M332 missiles with improved performance

While the original Tor was mounted on a tracked chassis, the Tor-M2 can be mounted on various objects such as wheeled chassis from Kamaz and in particularly the MZKT-6922 family of wheeled vehicles from the Belorussian MZKT (MAZ) in Minsk.

Besides Russia and Belarus, other notable users of the Tor system include Iran and China. A naval version is also in use by certain ships in the Russian Navy.


http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20130911/183363111/Russia-to-Deliver-More-Air-Defense-Systems-to-Belarus-in-2013.html

By SkyBon (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Doomych [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons