Russia Deploys Advanced Air Defense Tor-M2U to Guard Kuril Islands

On Wednesday, Russia’s Armed Forces stepped up their combat in the area using the latest anti-missile system ‘Tor-M2U’ in the Kuril Islands, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported.

Prior to this, for the past six months the soldiers and officers used the air defense system in experimental mode.

The Russian General Staff chose this particular weapon to protect the far eastern borders of Russia due to its combat capabilities. The Tor-M2U refers to a new generation of short-range air defense systems. Its main task is to cover the most important military and government facilities from attack from aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and enemy drones.

Each air defense missile system carries eight missiles which are launched vertically. It provides reliable protection against air targets flying at speeds of up to 700 meters per second. It is not only able to detect and identify 48 targets in the sky, but can also automatically determine which of them is the most dangerous.

Once the ‘identification’ is completed, the defense system can simultaneously fire four missiles at the enemy targets. The firing range of the Tor M2U measures from 500 meters to 12 kilometers and the height is from 10 meters to 6 kilometers.

In other words, if a foreign fighter jet, helicopter, small-sized drone or even a reconnaissance balloon comes anywhere near the Kuril Islands it will not go unnoticed. The anti-missile system will ‘see’ the enemy targets in any weather conditions day or night.