Why You Should Be Afraid of Russia’s New Heavy Flamethrower Battalions
by Michael PeckHeavy flamethrower battalions are coming to the Russian army.
The goal is to use incendiary weapons – devastating physically and psychologically – to clear enemy troops from cities, bunkers and tunnels.
Calling these weapons “flamethrowers” seems a bit of a misnomer. Rather than the backpack-and-nozzle units carried by foot soldiers in World War II, Russia will be using the new TOS-1A Solntsepek (“burning sun”) a multiple rocket launcher – mounted on a T-72 tank chassis – that fires thermobaric rockets. These weapons mix mix fuel and air in a cloud that, when detonated, creates massive heat and pressure effects. Russia has reportedly used the older TOS-1 Buratino in Syria.
“Solntsepek heavy flamethrowers will clear the road for Armata tanks and motorized riflemen,” according to Russian newspaper Izvestia. “They will form battalions, which are armed with those powerful systems, in each military district, Their primary mission is to dislodge the enemy from fortifications.”
Viktor Murakhovsky, a Russian defense expert, boasted to Izvestia that the new thermobaric weapons will so devastate the enemy that the infantry will have a cakewalk occupying the terrain. “‘Solntsepek’ systems provide complete destruction on a large area,” he said. “They are good during the breach of heavily defended fortified areas. Ordinary tube or rocket-propelled artillery will require much more time and ammunition to accomplish a similar mission. Moreover, the result will not be ensured in the end. But the heavy flamethrowers using fuel-air explosive munitions will destroy that defense with one salvo. Later, tanks and motorized riflemen should enter the engagement and, essentially, there will already be no one to offer resistance to them.”