Inside Russia's Tornado-S: Cutting corners in modern warfare

Images of the interior of the 9M544 rocket, launched from the modern Russian Tornado-S system—equivalent to the famous HIMARS—have surfaced online. We explain this system's performance and what is inside the newly produced rockets.

A 9M544 rocket dud with a range estimated to be as high as 124 miles (200 km) from new wartime production, fired from the very dangerous Tornado-S system, was found in Ukraine. In the images below, you can see the guidance section, which resembles the work of an amateur tinkerer, using what's available at the moment rather than military-grade equipment.

For example, the wires are laid very carelessly, and the soldering appears to be done manually rather than by machine. You can also see that some elements are covered with a red-pink coating that looks like lacquer. Meanwhile, the PCB itself, produced in December 2023, likely originates from China.

Due to sanctions, Russians have been cut off from certified electronic components for weaponry, which they try to circumvent by using commercial circuits. It's worth noting that the electronics in missile rockets can utilize parameters similar to those found in home appliance programmers or graphics cards.

Such substitutes are not certified to operate under extreme conditions such as pressure changes and high temperatures, but they can function if, for example, the circuit has enough memory and performance to handle the missile's software.

However, the issue is reliability, or rather the lack thereof. Compared to certified circuits, achieving reliability above 90 percent is not feasible, though exceeding 50 percent may be attainable. It is worth mentioning that North Korea uses ball bearings found in Toyota vehicles in its copies of Iskander-M, or KN-23. Some missiles fall apart mid-flight, but some do reach their targets.

Tornado-S is a modified BM-30 Smerch system carrying 12 ready-to-launch 11.8-inch (300 mm) caliber rockets. Unlike its predecessor, however, it is equipped with guidance based on inertial and satellite navigation (GLONASS), allowing it to hit targets with a precision of a few yards in optimal conditions.

The 124-mile (200 km) range is enabled by long 26-foot (8-meter) rockets that hold a significant amount of fuel, whose properties have been significantly improved compared to Soviet times. It is worth noting that Russia may have only a handful of launchers in service. In 2021, there were 20 units, and likely not many more have been produced since then.