What Is A Thermobaric Weapon? - Military Knowledge

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After nearly a month of sending troops to attack Ukraine, for the first time, the Russian military announced the use of thermobaric weapons, an explosive weapon with destructive power second only to nuclear weapons. So what is a thermobaric weapon? Let's find out in today's video.

A thermobaric weapon is an explosive weapon that, when detonated, can produce a series of shocks much, much longer and larger than explosive weapons using other conventional explosives. The feature of a thermobaric weapon, before detonation, will throw flammable liquid around, forming a flammable cloud. The flame created when igniting the fuel causes the air to expand suddenly, creating shock waves. It is this same fire that creates great damage between its heat radiating around and sucking all the air into the fire to form a vacuum in a short time, affecting all living things around the explosion and the exhausting of oxygen to burn cause all living things to suffocate.

 

Modern thermobaric weapons often use a chemical reaction to detonate, rather than using an old igniter, so the ability to detonate is almost 100%. This weapon is especially effective for combat in urban environments, destroying fortifications, destroying bunkers and fighting on a variety of complex terrain.

 

The power of thermobaric weapons is compared only to nuclear weapons, but it does not emit radiation, so it is widely used and is an important card of the world's military powers, including the Russian army.

 

This is the country with the world's leading thermobaric weapon technology with the TOS-1A thermobaric fire god. This is a heavy fire system with a multi-barrel rocket mounted on the body of a T-72 tank, battle crew of three, the current variants are popular at 30 barrels and 24 barrels, caliber 220 mm. Each barrel is a rocket carrying a thermobaric warhead or a combustible warhead capable of launching 24 to 30 thermobaric missiles at the same time within 7.5 to 15 seconds with a maximum range of 3.6 km.

 

The ammunition of this system is divided into two types, including warheads containing incendiary substances and warheads using barium thermobaric explosives, which are commonly used to make explosive bombs of vacuum technology, so it's sometimes called a vacuum bomb.

 

This system is not currently in service with the Russian army artillery like conventional rocket artillery systems, it is equipped and used by the Russian Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces. According to many experts, the TOS-1A is unique to Russia and has no competitors in the Western arsenal. And although Western analysts and intelligence have predicted that Russia will use these weapons in Ukraine, there is almost no way to stop them.

 

This system was first used by the Soviet Union for the Afghanistan war in 1988 with the first variant being TOS-1, then TOS-1 was also used by Russia in the wars of Chechnya, Syria and now Ukraine with upgraded variant TOS-1A.

 

In Ukraine, TOS-1A has been recorded for a long time but has not been used due to the great destructive power of this thermobaric weapon. Almost a month after fighting broke out in the city of Mariupol, after evacuating most of the civilians and sending an ultimatum to the Ukrainian authorities demanding: "Ukraine surrenders in Mariupol before 5 a.m. on March 21, the surrendered Ukrainian armed forces can leave the city, but on condition that they do not bring weapons." This ultimatum was ultimately rejected outright by the Ukrainian authorities, and the Russian military officially fired the TOS-1A system at Mariupol shortly after. In which the main focus is the Azov battalion entrenched in the city, especially the Azovstal factory area with many underground works.

 

According to information from the Russian side, Mariupol currently has 15,000 to 20,000 Ukrainian troops defending, of which at least 3,000 are from the far-right Azov battalion. The city of Mariupol is one of the key strongholds of the Azov battalion, which Russia accuses of carrying neo-fascist ideology. Therefore, in addition to the strategic location, the city of Mariupol, Azov's stronghold is the key point in Russia's war in Ukraine.

 

The fighting that broke out at Mariupol had been fierce throughout the entire war. Despite being pushed back more and more by the Russian army, defensively clustered and divided, the Ukrainian resistance forces and the Azov battalion still resisted fiercely. However, with the participation of the TOS-1A thermobaric fire god, according to many sources from the Russian army, most of the remaining resistance forces in the city were destroyed quickly, showing the tremendous power of this weapon.

 

At the same time, the decision to use one of its most powerful weapons shows that Russia is really fierce in the war and the balance of power will be evident when the Russian military is able to separate Ukrainian resistance forces from civilians and pro-Russian forces.

 

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