Comments on: SS-21 Missile on a Car

By: Russian

Russian — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:37:05 +0000

It was an SS-21 missle with cluster warhead, which was detonated at 2000m. That`s why this part is in so good condition.

By: Ast95

Ast95 — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:29:02 +0000

It is Tochka-U small range ground to ground missile. It’s explodes at height about 20m, covering at least 100×100 m2. What is on photo is debris fell to ground after that event. Car passengers, if there was any, are just had bad carma.

By: AW1 Tim

AW1 Tim — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:51:30 +0000

As I understand it, the grill-looking object is part of a Russian field kitchen. They simply attach it to the nozzle, load up a bunch of steaks and fire the motor up for 3-4 seconds a side to flash-fry them.

Those clever rooskies :)

By: jaymaster

jaymaster — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:09:15 +0000

I was thinking they might try such a thing for propaganda purposes, but that is kind of a stretch.

The sand to put of a fire theory makes more sense.

Also, I had my fore and aft’s backwards when I first looked at that thing. I have since learned that the “potato masher” contraption is a control mechanism that sits at the rear of the missile.

By: Bram

Bram — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:38:54 +0000

I assumed that stuff was some kind of powdered explosive or slurry that’s gone bad or the fuse failed. I highly doubt the Russians are trying to minimize damage by using inert bombs.

That guy should drop a match on it and see what happens.

By: ryan

ryan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:12:37 +0000

I would say it had an anti-personnel warhead that just breaks apart in the air and scatters the submunitions. This would leave most of the lower half intact (guidance section aft) to fall out of control and land at a random spot. Just bad luck for the cop. He probably dumped the sand on the smoldering rocket motor so it wouldn’t catch the whole car on fire.

By: jaymaster

jaymaster — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:18:14 +0000

That looks like sand to me. Could it be that the Rooskies were trying to emulate some US actions in Iraq?

We dropped some precision dummy smart bombs (for lack of a better word) that were loaded with sand or concrete instead of an explosive warhead, onto antennas and such, to knock them out with minimal risk of collateral damage.

Yes, that’s nice, but it’s also a bit arrogant in a way. Like, “ We don’t need no stinken warheads. We can drop smart sand bags on your head! “

Maybe the Russians wanted to show that they could do the same thing? Not that they necessarily targeted this particular vehicle with a sand bomb, but I guess that’s possible too.

By: robotrobot

robotrobot — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:54:27 +0000

That guy should not be standing so close. The headcrabs will come crawling out any moment.

By: Wike E. Coyote (Super Genius)

Wike E. Coyote (Super Genius) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:20:19 +0000

I am done with buying rocket parts from ACME. You simply cannot find a reliable vendor for such items these days. I suspect I will be forced into producing my own devices from now on. Sigh.

It would be nice, however, if those cretins taking the pictures would lift this thing up so I can find my tail.

By: Toejam

Toejam — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:25:58 +0000

You know, for the high cost of missles these days you would think at the very least a red flag would pop out with BANG in large yellow letters!