The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has reached its 80th day, and the two sides have already fought a modern World War II. He was holding a modern weapon, but he was fighting in the mode of World War II. The Germans, who had conquered the plains of Western Europe, eventually fell under the Soviet union. Whether it is World War II or now, the torrent of steel has always been difficult to break through the obstacles of the city. Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on February 24, the city of Mariupol has been shelled by Russian forces on the same day as part of the Russian eastern offensive, and then on March 2, the Russian army completely surrounded the city.
In order to be able to take this strategically valuable coastal city, the Russian army used a large number of heavy weapons and finally bombed the city half-maimed, before occupying most of the city. With the collapse of much of the rest of the city of Mariupol, the remaining Ukrainian troops and Azov militants shrank into the Azov Steel Plant. The Azov Steel Works was built on the coastline in the 1930s, and today, it covers an area of about 11 square kilometers, and you probably don't have much concept of this square kilometer, so convert it to 11 million square meters. With a network of tunnels buried deep underground and an underground bunker believed to withstand nuclear explosions beneath the Azov Steel Works, it can be said that this is a large and super-defensive steel city.
Ever since the Ukrainian army and the remnants of the Azov regiment retreated to the Azov steel plant, the Russians surrounded the place. At first, in order to reduce losses, the Russian army adopted the tactics of encircling and not attacking and frequently persuading the remnants inside, and later may feel that they have been very stubborn, and have always involved a small number of Russian troops, so now the Russian army is also angry, and the Russian army has changed its strategy from the first few days and began to attack the Azov Steel Plant. During this period, the Russian army used a variety of large-caliber artillery, as well as super heavy aerial ammunition, and although many achievements were made, there were still more than 1,000 Ukrainian remnants in the underground tunnels of the Azov Steel Plant. Moreover, these remnants of the army just declared a few days ago that they would never surrender and vowed to fight to the death.
It may be that these stubborn remnants completely angered the Russian army, and the Russian army took out a Secret Weapon of the Soviet Era to destroy the entrances and exits of the underground tunnels in the Aeszov Steel Works, and once these openings were blocked, the members of the Azov Regiment hiding in the underground tunnels were finished. Recently, a photo of the Russian army's operations was circulated on social media, showing the Russian army firing a huge mortar shell at the Azov Steel Plant with a 2S4 "Tulip" 240 mm mortar. The theater column of the well-known military website in the United States judged that it was a laser-guided mortar shell called Smel'chak through the photos flowed out, which is also the largest model of the same type of shell in the world.
Smel'chak shells
The laser-guided shell weighs 134.2 kg, is equipped with 32 kg of concentrated high explosives, and can collapse a building with one shot, with a bullet length of 1635 mm, a caliber of 240 mm, and a range of 3600 to 9200 meters, which completely covers the Azov Steel Plant.
Its launcher is the 2S4 "Tulip" 240 mm self-propelled mortar, which is also the world's largest self-propelled mortar, it is also called "City Destroyer", as long as you give it enough shells, it can bulldoze a city, the Russian army in the Second Chechen War with the 2S4 self-propelled mortar to level the city of Grozny. 2S4 self-propelled mortar I have detailed its performance a few days ago, interested can go to see this article: the Ukrainian army repelled eight Russian attacks a day, in order to change the unfavorable situation, the Russian army invested 30 tons of heavy artillery
The Russians had used the 2S4 Tulip Heavy Mortar in Mariupol a month earlier, but it fired unguided mortar shells. Previously, Western countries were speculating that Russia's inventory of various types of precision-guided munitions was constantly decreasing, and due to Western sanctions, Russia could not buy parts for the production of precision-guided weapons, so the Russian army used non-guided ammunition on a large scale on the Battlefield in Ukraine. This may also be the reason why the Russian army has not been able to completely take Mariupol so far.
The 2S4 Tulip heavy mortar usually fires two types of heavy high-explosive shells, one is a 130 kg standard high-explosive shell, the other is a rocket-boosted extended range high-explosive bomb weighing 228 kg, both of which are amazingly powerful, they can easily break through buildings made of concrete, and it has made a lot of effort in the process of capturing Mariupol.
To unleash the power of the 2S4 heavy mortar, it was necessary to use precision-guided artillery shells, the Smel'chak laser-guided artillery shells that the Russians were firing at the Azov Steel Plant. The device was developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s and put into use in 1983. In the beginning, the Soviets fired with the M240 towed mortar, which showed a surprising hit rate when it first entered the war. At the time, Soviet artillery could have treated it as a secret treasure. When the Russians were caught in the street battles in Grozny, they reportedly destroyed 127 targets with Smel'chak laser-guided artillery shells.
The Smel'chak laser-guided artillery shell is part of the 1K113 guided weapon system, which also includes a 3F5 precision guided artillery shell and a laser pointer - rangefinder 1D15 or 1D20.
Smel'chak laser-guided shells need to be guided by a separate laser pointer after firing, which is generally 200 to 5000 meters away from the target. During the War in Afghanistan, the Soviets recorded its use in detail, and in one operation, the Soviets fired a regular shell for calibration, and then fired a Smel'chak laser-guided shell, which accurately passed through a hole in the wall of the fortress and then exploded inside the fortress. Of course, good weather conditions are needed for the guided shell to play its best role, after all, laser guidance is affected by the weather.
M240 launch
The Smel'chak laser-guided artillery shell was originally intended to be used in coordination with artillery observers, who carried laser pointers- rangefinders that could both observe ranging and targets. By now, the Russian military can completely install laser indicators on the drone, so that it can fly over the Avelv Steel Plant to indicate the target, without the need for personnel to approach the target indication, which is much safer and more convenient.
Laser ranging and indicators
At the head of the Smel'chak laser-guided shell there is a correction unit equipped with an aerodynamic rudder, and the head of the shell also has 8 miniature low-power solid rocket engines to correct the flight path, and the correction time is 0.1 to 0.3 seconds. When the shell is 400 to 800 meters away from the target, the laser seeker will be turned on, which means that from the moment it turns on the laser guidance, it only takes 1 to 3 seconds to reach the target, and the enemy cannot physically interfere with the Smel'chak laser guidance shell in such a short time. The probability of it hitting a circle that is 2 to 3 meters in diameter is 80-90%. This hit rate, although less than it is now, was enough to hit the tunnel entrances and exits in the Azov Steel Works.
In any case, Smel'chak laser guided artillery shells are indeed much behind modern precision guided artillery shells, and the operation is also very troublesome, plus the 2S4 self-propelled mortar is also troublesome to operate, so the number of Russian military equipment is not much, mainly used to attack the stronghold, in urban warfare is responsible for demolishing buildings.
The Russians had full superiority over the Azov Steel Works, and the remnants of the encircled Ukrainian forces were unable to destroy the 2S4 self-propelled mortar, so the Russians were able to use the demolition gun as they pleased. A 2S4 self-propelled mortar vehicle can be loaded with about 40 mel'chak laser-guided shells, firing at a rate of fire per minute, as long as the targets in the Azov steel plant are found, one by one targeted clearance can be done, which is much more convenient than using aircraft to bomb the tunnel entrance. As for its effectiveness, it depends on how many mel'chak laser-guided artillery shells the Russian army has, and how long it will take for the Russian army to capture the Azov Steel Plant.