Back in early December 2017, Leonid Shiman, General Director of the Ukrainian State Enterprise NPO Pavlograd Chemical Plant, made a rather unexpected and contradictory statement about the entry of the program for the development of the operational-tactical missile system "Grom-2" into the final phase, which even then created a real "dump on Runet. »From the comments left by both opponents and supporters of the criminal Kiev regime. The first traditionally (in a standard marasmic form) flaunted the rapid adoption of the "Thunder" into service with Ukrainian formations with the possibility of "shelling Central Russia from positions in the Sumy region." The latter, in a standard way, without giving much thought to the details of what was happening, began to ridicule the project, emphasizing the lack of experience, capabilities and financial resources of the cooperation between the enterprises of Yuzhnoye KB and NPO Pavlograd Chemical Plant, controlled by the junta. An even greater commotion in the network began after the posting of a video of demonstration bench tests of prototypes of booster stages with solid-propellant rocket engines, one of which ended in an explosion and destruction of the demonstrator at the final stage of the solid-propellant charge burnout due to an unforeseen pressure surge above the permissible limit.
During the period from the moment the project was announced (2013) to the start of bench tests (late 2017), the program has acquired many useless myths that often distract us from the threats that may appear after the first OTRKs become operational. What do we know about this project? We can say for sure that it is a conceptual analogue of the early draft design of the Borisfen operational-tactical missile system, which was created within the walls of the Yuzhnoye design bureau in Dnipropetrovsk in 1994, and in a few years was supposed to replace the outdated 9K72 Elbrus complexes "And 9K79-1" Tochka-U ". The promising operational-tactical ballistic missile "Borisfen" (OTBR) was planned to be equipped with a guidance system with a new element base.
It was supposed to include not just a more advanced command-gyroscopic device with fiber-optic or ring laser gyroscopes, but a gyroscopic inertial measuring module + a more advanced optoelectronic correlation unit-GOS with a possible option in the form of a GPS radio navigation module, which would provide the KVO rocket is about 15 - 20 m. According to the Yuzhnoye design bureau specialists, the Borisfen rocket in cruising flight speed should have significantly outstripped the OTBR 8K14 of the Elbrus complex and the OTBR 9M79-1 of the Tochka-U complex to improve the potential for overcoming the enemy's missile defense. Obviously, the Ukrainians did alignment with the 9M714 high-speed operational-tactical ballistic missile of the Oka complex, the detachable warhead of which on the approach section of the trajectory passed into an 80-90-degree dive at a speed of about 10,500 km / h. This was also confirmed by plans to give the Borisfen a range of 500 km. Nevertheless, against the background of the difficult economic situation in the mid - late 90s, the project, fortunately, remained at the level of sketch sketches. Otherwise, even at the start of the escalation in Donbass in 2014, when the then militia did not have the proper air defense equipment and was not at all familiar with the operation of this weapon, in the hands of Kiev there would be a tactical missile system that was completely "tested" at test ranges, capable of to strike even greater distances at the peaceful cities of the LPNR and the advanced units of the Armed Forces of Novorossia.
However, the Ukrainian paramilitary formations, even without a new complex, have been creating unbearable living conditions for the peaceful Russian population of the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics for more than three years using cannon and rocket artillery, as well as the Tochka-U OTRK. Fortunately, a certain number of Tor-M1 air defense missile systems and other air defense systems capable of intercepting “Tochki” moving at speeds from 600 to 800 m / s still appeared at the LDPR NM corps. Nevertheless, this does not at all negate the problems of the possible adoption of the "Thunder-2". In 2009, the revised OTRK Borisfen project again appeared in the list of promising defense programs of the "Independent", but under the name "Sapsan". The product was supposed to be equipped with a promising guidance system based on miniature solid-state MEMS-semiconductor gyroscopes (possibly US ADXRS150 (300), as well as ADXL330 accelerometers, as was done on the first Iskander. for 4 years (until 2013), while the then Minister of Defense, regional Pavel Lebedev, announced the curtailment of an ambitious project, on which the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and the Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant were working. started back in 2010.
As for Thunder-2, information about the start of development appeared on September 1, 2016 on the Ukrainian resource depo.ua with reference to the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and Pavlograd Chemical Plant. Moreover, it became known that the development enterprises secured financial support from the Central Asian regional superpower - Saudi Arabia (the acceleration of the design pace is due precisely to the interest of Riyadh against the background of failed contracts for the purchase of Russian Iskander-M and American ATACMS), and it radically changes the situation. The Saudis, who have invested more than $ 40 million in the project, will certainly control that the new product becomes operational as quickly as possible. And the opinion of some commentators and "experts" is quite erroneous that with 64 years of experience in designing various types of medium-range ballistic missiles, ICBMs and launch vehicles, the former OKB-586 (now Yuzhnoye Design Bureau) will stretch the design of the Groma-2 for a whole decade; do not forget that the project is overseen by Riyadh. Now about one more interesting detail concerning the origin of the "Thunder-2" complex.
We all know that the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense and Aviation has an approximately 30-year history of cooperating with Chinese research institutes and state-owned aerospace companies. So, back in the 88th year, the Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Forces, in secret from the United States, acquired more than 50 DF-3A medium-range ballistic missiles from the Celestial Empire in defiance of the Israeli lobby in the US Congress, because of which Washington refused to acquire Riyadh E-3A "Sentry" early warning and control aircraft. Later, in the mid-2000s, a scandal broke out about the acquisition by Saudi Arabia of even more advanced MRBM DF-21 with the permission of the White House, which was partially described in the book "Patriot Lost" by American analyst and engineer of the US Navy Jonathan Scherk. At the present stage, this cooperation is expressed in the purchase of 300 promising long-range strike and reconnaissance UAVs "Pterodactyl-II" ("Wing Loong-II") worth about $ 10 billion. In other words, Riyadh may well acquire from Beijing documentation on other types of weapons, in addition to those that have unique structural and electronic elements using critical technologies.
And now let's turn our eyes to the 5-axle mobile launcher of high cross-country ability, developed by KrAZ or Design Bureau named after V. I. Morozov (State Enterprise KMDB). At its base, we see a rather bulky twin launcher with heavy transport and launch containers ~ 8, 5-9 m long and about 1, 2-1, 5 m wide. Thunder-2 "in the area of the starting engine ranges from 0.85 to 1 m. We can see an almost identical (in design) twin launcher as part of the Chinese operational-tactical complex M20 (version for the PLA - DF-12), with the only difference that the Chinese complex uses a 4-axle chassis. What is even more remarkable, the mass of the Groma-2 warhead indicated by the Ukrainian developer fully coincides with the weight of the military equipment of the Chinese M20 (480 kg). Here is the only loophole through which the ideas of the Groma-2 design, which were the documentation for the M20 (DF-12) OTBR, were in the hands of the “square”, and representatives of the special services and the Ministry of Defense of Saudi Arabia acted as the main connecting link in this action. It is also possible that Beijing handed over to the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau the DF-12 production technology in exchange for providing some Soviet critical technology that did not fall into the hands of Chinese specialists. There may be a lot of intricacies here, but one thing is clear: great efforts are being made for the early adoption of "Thunder-2" into service, and this is a very bad sign!
Judging by its dimensions, the operational-tactical ballistic missile of the Grom-2 complex can have a range of 350 to 600 km, which allows for powerful strikes from the central regions of the “square” to the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics. And as an effective defense, neither the Tora-M1, nor the Pantsiri-C1 will pass here, since the flight speed of the Thunder-2 in the final section of the trajectory will be from 7 to 9M (like that of the Oka), therefore for protection will require such anti-aircraft missile systems as the S-300PM1, S-300V4 or "Buk-M3", which will need to be transferred to the Donbas urgently. Today, one should put aside the thoughtless ridicule of the next Ukrainian project and think well about countermeasures if this product is brought to mind with Arabian and Chinese help, because the Chinese people of Donbass and the disagreements between Moscow and Kiev are absolutely indifferent.
