Inside Russia's makeshift missiles: Uncovering the Tornado-S

Images of the interior of the 9M544 rocket, launched from the modern Russian Tornado-S system, which is equivalent to the well-known HIMARS, have surfaced online. We explore how this system performs and reveal what is inside the newly produced rockets.

A 9M544 rocket dud, with a range estimated to be as long as 200 kilometres (124 miles) from recent wartime production, fired from the highly dangerous Tornado-S system, was discovered in Ukraine. In the images below, you can see the guidance section, which resembles the work of an amateur tinkerer, utilising available resources rather than conforming to military-grade equipment.

For example, the wires are laid in a rather haphazard manner, and the soldering appears to be done by hand instead of by machine. You can also notice that some components are covered with a red-pink coating that seems to be lacquer. Meanwhile, the printed circuit board itself, produced in December 2022, likely originates from China.

Due to sanctions, the Russians have been cut off from certified electronic components for use in weaponry, which they attempt to circumvent by employing commercial circuits. It's noteworthy that the electronics in missile rockets can utilise similar parameters to those found in household 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 sufficient 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 per cent is not feasible, but reaching over 50 per cent might be attainable. It's 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.

The Tornado-S is a modified BM-30 Smerch system, carrying 12 ready-to-launch rockets of 300 millimetres (12 inches) in calibre. Unlike its predecessor, it is equipped with guidance based on inertial and satellite navigation (GLONASS), allowing it to hit targets with a precision of a few metres (around ten feet) in optimal conditions.

The 200-kilometre (124-mile) range is possible due to the long 8-metre (26-foot) rockets that contain a substantial amount of fuel, whose properties have been significantly improved compared to Soviet times. It is worth noting that Russia may only have a limited number of launchers in service. In 2021, there were 20 units, and likely not many more have been produced since then.