A new video that has appeared on social networks shows that the Russian armed forces have created another weapon composed of two unrelated weapons systems, forming a real “Frankenstein”.

The video, which first appeared on Russian Telegram channels, shows Russian army engineers installing RBU-6000 anti-submarine missile launchers on the chassis of T-80 tanks.

Officially designated by the Russian Navy as the RBU-6000 Smerch-2, the anti-submarine ship-mounted launcher uses 213-millimeter rockets, similar in principle to the system used by Britain’s Royal Navy during World War II. war

The Smerch-2 launcher entered service with the Soviet Navy in the early 1960s and was installed on a wide range of Moscow warships for many years. The launcher consists of 12 RGB-60 rocket tubes, which usually carry unguided depth charges.

The new system, developed by Russian engineers, was also noted by naval analyst H.I. Sutton, who noted that the weapon looks like something out of the movie “Mad Max”.

The Russian military is trying to find a new role for anti-submarine launchers

Forbes agency, however, shows that this is not the first “inoculation” of the Russian army with RBU-600 launchers, but they all suffer from a major drawback: they have a range of only a few kilometers. This is because they were designed to work similar to the minesweepers used on ships.

In September, a photo appeared on social media showing the Smerch-2 launcher mounted on the MT-LB armored vehicle, which entered service with the Soviet armed forces in the 1970s.

While it is unclear whether this system can be used successfully on the front end, the MT-LB chassis should at least theoretically provide a stable launch platform. But this cannot be said about another improvisation of the Russian army, revealed thanks to a photo that appeared in November:

It shows Russian engineers installing the RBU-600 launcher in the trailer of a 15-ton military truck, which appears to have been “secured” with a piece of board to provide greater stability to the overall system.

Forbes points out another problem with both homegrown products, which were first seen last year: the lack of protective armor. Although the MT-LB can withstand small arms fire, numerous videos released over the past year have shown that these Russian tanks are highly vulnerable to kamikaze drones, or improvised munitions launched from commercial drones.

New footage now surfacing on social media appears to show that the Russian military has also noticed this flaw: the chassis of the T-80 tank offers much better protection to the crew of a home-made launcher in the event of a hit. Of course, in the case of a direct hit in the launch tubes, there is a high probability that this will lead to a catastrophic detonation of the missiles.

Did the Russians create a “franken launcher” for the Ukrainian front?

Frobes quips that this new Russian weapon could be called the RBU-600 “Franken Launchers” and that the Russians have essentially created a “poor man’s TOS-1” of sorts. The TOS-1 systems, adopted by the Soviet armed forces in 1988, consist of a 24-missile launcher mounted on the chassis of the T-72 (and later T-90) tank.

(PHOTO: Oleksiy Zarubin / Alamy / Profimedia Images)

Although the reasons why Russian engineers resorted to such improvisations cannot be known with certainty, they are most likely related to the losses of volley fire systems suffered by Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine.

According to the website Oryx, which independently tracks losses for both armed forces fighting in Ukraine, the Russian military has lost at least 342 salvo launchers in the nearly two years since the invasion began, 54 of which were captured by the Ukrainian military.

The new weapon system of the Russian army is of course not the first improvisation that has confused even military analysts, perhaps the most famous of them was seen in March of last year, when images of a 25 mm naval anti-aircraft turret appeared on social networks. of the 2M-3 network of 1945 “genetically crossed” with the MT-LB armored car.

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