Rare Russian arctic anti-air system destroyed for first time by Ukraine

A rare Russian Arctic TOR-M2DT air defense system was destroyed for the first time in the platform's service history by Ukrainian artillery, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

Ukrainian artillerymen hit the TOR-M2DT with shells after the location of the system was scouted by a drone, the ministry said, posting a video mocking how the anti-air platform had been extolled in Russian media.

The Arctic TOR-M2DT air defense system became the star of russian television when it was sent to Ukraine. But soon a Ukrainian drone introduced it to Ukrainian gunners. It burned brightly, the fire extinguisher did not help. pic.twitter.com/12ze4kj6sl — Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) February 2, 2023

"The Arctic TOR-M2DT air defense system became the star of Russian television when it was sent to Ukraine," said the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. "It burned brightly, the fire extinguisher did not help."

A second TOR-M2DT was destroyed on Friday, claimed Ukraine Weapons Tracker, an open-source intelligence project of Calibre Obscura arms research. It claimed that these incidents were the first confirmed kills of the systems.

#Ukraine: The second ever destruction (in as many days) of the extremely rare Russian 9A331MDT Tor-M2DT air defense system, intended for use in the Arctic. It was again destroyed using M982 Excalibur guided projectiles in #Kherson Oblast. pic.twitter.com/8FrubQC64K — Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) February 3, 2023

The project said that both Tor-M2DT were destroyed in Kherson using M982 Excalibur-guided projectiles. Excalibur rounds are GPS-guided 155 mm projectiles that were provided to Ukraine in US defense packages.

The Tor-M2DT is the arctic version of the Tor-M2 surface-to-air missile system. The Tor-M2 was designed to intercept attacks from cruise missiles, gliding bombs, aircraft, helicopters and drones, according to Russian state media outlet TASS. It has a range of 12km and altitude range of 10km.