Armenia Armed Forces have received Russian TOR-M2KM air defense missile systems.

The Armenian Armed Forces have received the latest TOR-M2KM Russian-made surface-to-air defense missile systems, according to a statement published on December 21, 2019, to the official website of the Armenian Ministry of Defence.

Russian-made TOR-M2KM mobile air defense missile system at KADEX defense exhibition in May 2016. (Picture source Army Recognition)

According to the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan the TOR-M2KM air defense missile systems were produced in 2019 but the Prime Minister hast not reveal how many Tor-M2KM systems had been delivered to the Armenian armed forces. The Armenian Tor-M2KM is base on the KAMAZ-63501 8×8 all-terrain military truck.

The Tor-M2KM is a self-contained fighting module version of the TOR-M2 air defense missile system that can be mounted on different platforms including trucks and warships. The module weighs 15 tons and contains all equipment needed to operate without any external support. It can go from standby to full alert in 3 minutes and acquire 144 air targets while simultaneously tracking the 20 most dangerous ones marked for priority by the two-man crew.

The Tor-M2 is an upgraded version of the Tor-M1 short-range air defense missile system. The TOR-M2/M2E is designed by the Russian Defense Company Almaz-Antey. The TOR-M2 was presented for the first time to the public during the Moscow Air Show, MAKS in 2007.

The TOR-M2 can fire the missile 9M331 and 9M332. The design of the missile round is similar conceptually to much earlier 9K33 / SA-8 Gecko, but with some important differences, both employing a simple tubular airframe design with a solid rocket powerplant. The airframe uses cruciform canard controls for pitch/yaw control, and a revolving sleeve mounts the cruciform tail surfaces.

The Tor-M2 can simultaneously engage up to 48 processed targets and ten tracked targets. The TOR-M2 can engage a target at the range from 1,000 to 12,000 m and to an altitude from 10 to 10,000 m.

In the background of the picture, we can see two TOR-M2KM surface-to-air defense missile systems based KAMAZ-63501 8×8 all-terrain military trucks. (Picture source Armenian MoD)