Importance of identification
On January 12, many Russian accounts announced on social networks, with supporting images, that Russia had destroyed a Ukrainian anti-aircraft system of Western origin. If the system is indeed an anti-aircraft type device, its origin is not at all Western but indeed North Korean!
This system is quite recent because it was unveiled on October 10, 2020, during a military parade in North Korea. Generally speaking, it appears as a truck with a trailer equipped with an anti-aircraft missile launcher. The set comes in the form of a 3-axle tractor with a cabin that appears to be protected. It tows a trailer with 2 rear axles, this one carrying a turreted weapon system. Two radars are visible: a search radar (360°) deployed above the turret and a tracking radar (fixed orientation) located at the rear of the turret. Between the two radars are the vertical missile silos, equipped with surface-to-air missiles. In view of this description, many defense experts saw in this “anti-aircraft truck” a variant made in North Korea of the Russian short-range (tracked) anti-aircraft vehicle Tor-M2 (SA-15 Gauntlet).
And in fact, by comparing the images of this 2020 parade and the very recent video published on social networks, it is possible to find many points in common between the two images:
- radar (yellow)
- general shape (red)
- identical wheel set (blue)
- identical barrier (orange dotted lines)
This comparison clearly suggests that it is indeed a North Korean “Tor-M2” anti-aircraft system destroyed by the Russian Armed Forces. Unfortunately, precise information of this system is not available. Its resemblance to the Tor-M2 simply suggests that it is a short-range anti-aircraft system.
