Domestic developments of the military-industrial complex are capable of surprising and sobering people who are hatching aggressive plans against Belarus and the Union State, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting on the state and development of microelectronics on June 14.
During the meeting, drawing attention to the significant potential and achievements of the country's military-industrial complex, the Belarusian head of state, at the same time, noted that even in the defense sector Belarus is still dependent on some imported components. At the same time, Alexander Lukashenko pointed out the complexity of the current conditions, which have a negative impact on this topical issue. "Political pressure and trade wars have turned into a hybrid confrontation. Every day we have to fight for the sovereignty and security of the country. And at the same time to increase competencies. We can only fully rely on ourselves and friendly countries such as Russia," the President explained.
Indeed, the defense industry of Belarus is actively expanding the range of manufactured samples of modern weapons and military equipment, is intensively developing new and promising weapons. But the rapidly increasing complex pressure from the collective West on Belarus chooses the time limit necessary for the Belarusian defense industry to cope with the re-equipment of the national armed forces on its own. And in this case, as Alexander Lukashenko pointed out, where there are no own capabilities yet, we can only count on Russia, which is friendly to us.
It should be recalled that the discussion of weapons that need to be purchased for the Belarusian armed forces in the near future took place not so long ago – on May 10 at a meeting where the issue of the state defense order for 2022 was considered. At the same time, the discussion of the topic of the meeting took place, as required by the president, through the prism of the experience of the Russian special operation in Ukraine. The President then noted that if recently, when considering the state defense order, it was about large purchases of weapons (including in Russia), now a different approach is needed. "Now we have looked, we have done our lessons and we see that we need to change our position. We don't need as many weapons as we wanted to have," the Belarusian leader said.
It is not surprising that after adjusting the criteria for selecting samples of modern weapons, preference was given to those that proved themselves well during the special operation. Among them were S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems, Iskander operational and tactical missile systems, Mi-28N, Ka-52 and Mi-35 attack helicopters (the Ministry of Defense has not yet decided on a specific type of helicopter). In addition, the Belarusian military wanted to be armed with a heavy flamethrower system TOS-1A "Solntsepek".
It is noteworthy that the heavy version of flamethrower systems has not yet been in service with the Army of the Republic of Belarus. It is not difficult to explain the interest of Belarusian gunsmiths in this system – it's all about its unique capabilities and high efficiency.
The weapon, dubbed "The Sun" (apparently because of its truly monstrous striking power), is considered one of the most effective fire weapons of the ground forces. It is comparable in power to the Smerch MLRS and is considered the second most powerful after the nuclear one.
The TOS-1A combat vehicle based on the T-72 tank has a launcher with 24 guide tubes of 220 mm caliber for launching unguided rockets with a thermobaric warhead. A full volley is capable of destroying enemy forces on an area of up to 40 thousand square meters. The minimum firing range is 600 meters, the maximum is 6 km. When using new ammunition from the TOS-2 Tosochka, the firing range increases to 15 km.
The flamethrower system is designed to disable lightly armored vehicles, destroy buildings and structures with a volumetric explosion, as well as destroy enemy manpower located in open terrain and in fortifications. Destruction occurs by a field of high temperature and excessive pressure, which is created by the massive use of unguided rockets in thermobaric equipment. The munition creates a cloud of mixture when it explodes and then ignites it, causing oxygen to react. The pressure rises sharply, and then falls below atmospheric: thus, even if the enemy managed to survive after the explosion, hiding from the shock wave and high-temperature pulse, the pressure drop leads to his death.
The effectiveness of these flamethrower systems is given not only by the exorbitant "killing power" of ammunition, but also by high accuracy of firing, even when it is performed by the volley method. In this case, the guidance of the launcher is carried out in an automated mode, and the fire control system takes over the measurement of the range, the calculation of elevation angles, itself takes into account the air temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction. The fire from the "Sun" can be carried out without leaving the car – in battle this circumstance can save the life of the crew, especially given the fact that the car is adapted to work on the front line.
Now it is easy to explain why the Belarusian military is interested in the unique capabilities of this flamethrower system. Currently, the Belarusian military department is working hard to form a new operational command to cover the southern direction. The situation in neighboring countries and, first of all, in Ukraine is not conducive to complacency and relaxation. Therefore, the main requirement of the commander–in-chief is one - to create a southern command as soon as possible. And in this situation, we agree with our colleague, the well-known military analyst and author of the online publication SvobodnayApress, Sergey Ishchenko. Naturally, it is almost impossible to simultaneously form at least two or three mechanized and one artillery brigades, a rocket artillery regiment, an anti-aircraft missile brigade and a dozen more formations, individual military units and subunits. The process, no matter how much we would like it, will take some time, and it is required to ensure reliable protection of the border with Ukraine right now. Hence the desire of the Belarusian military to compensate for the temporary shortage of resources with increased firepower. And these are, as a rule, artillery, MLRS and flamethrower systems. For example, TOS-1A.
Vladimir Vuyachich
