What is Known About Russian TOS-2 Thermobaric Launcher and What Makes It So Fearsome

A new video recently released by the Ministry of Defense shows the deployment of Russia's TOS-2 Tosochka heavy flamethrower system in the Ukraine conflict zone, where this weapon has already wiped out an entrenched Ukrainian troop formation.

So what exactly is the TOS-2, and what makes it so dangerous to enemy infantry and lightly armored vehicles?

The TOS-2 is the latest iteration of Russian “heavy flamethrower” weapon systems that are essentially rocket artillery units, which fire thermobaric munitions, the first of which – the TOS-1 Buratino – was developed in the 1970s and saw action during the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

While the TOS-1 and its successor the TOS-1A Solntsepyok are both fitted on T-72 tank chassis, the TOS-2 is mounted on Ural 6x6 all-terrain armored trucks.

With its wheeled chassis making it more agile than its tracked predecessors, the TOS-2 is also much lighter than them, weighing only 20 metric tons as compared to the TOS-1A’s 46 metric tons.

New electronic countermeasure equipment enables the TOS-2 a degree of protection from enemy precision weaponry, and its onboard automated fire control system provides a substantial boost in accuracy.

TOS-2 also does not require a dedicated loading vehicle, as this weapon system has a built-in loader crane.

The new type of munitions it uses allow the Tosochka to hit targets from a greater distance: whereas a TOS-1A can lob a thermobaric ordnance at a distance of up to 6 kilometers tops, the TOS-2 can a soar at a range of at least 10 kilometers (up to 14–15 kilometers, if some military experts are to be believed).

Whereas the 24-barrel TOS-1A can torch an area of up to 40,000 square meters, a full salvo from the 18-barrel TOS-2 can transform a 60,000 square meter area into a blazing inferno.

The thermobaric munitions used by the TOS-2 make this weapon system a perfect tool for eliminating enemy infantry, both in the open and those dug-in, clearing out enemy fortifications, and for turning enemy lightly armored vehicles into scorched heaps of scrap metal.

The exact number of TOS-1 and TOS-2 launchers Russia currently has is hard to gauge based on open sources data alone, especially when Russian military and security officials have become understandably tight-lipped on such matters amid the ongoing Ukrainian conflict.

In 2018, however, a Russian media outlet reported that Moscow's military, at that time, was expected to receive “over 70” TOS-1A weapon systems.