Azerbaijan’s heavy flamethrower system TOS-1A fires at Armenian positions
On September 28th, the Ministry of Defense of the Nagorno Karabakh region announced that the Azerbaijani armed forces were using TOS heavy artillery.
“Today the enemy used TOS heavy artillery systems in the southern and southeastern directions of the front. The use of weapons proved to be ineffective. All the information spread by the enemy about the losses of the Armenian side does not correspond to reality,” the statement said.
TOS-1, Heavy Flamethrower System) is a Soviet 220mm 30-barrel (original system, Ob.634 or TOS-1M) or 24-barrel (Ob.634B or TOS-1A) multiple rocket launcher and thermobaric weapon mounted on a T-72 tank chassis. TOS-1 was designed for defeating enemy personnel in fortifications, in open country, and in lightly armoured vehicles and transport. First combat tests took place in 1988–1989 in the Panjshir Valley during the Soviet–Afghan War. The TOS-1 was shown for the first time in public in 1999 in Omsk.
TOS-1 is not assigned to the artillery units of the Russian Armed Forces but is found in Russian NBC Protection Troops. That is why it does not have a GRAU index, but rather an RKhBZ index—МO.1.01.00.
