The Russian army shot down a Ukrainian Grom-2 missile in the special operations area. This was announced at a daily briefing by Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense. This was the first case since the beginning of the NMD that Russian air defense forces shot down such a missile.
“A Mi-8 helicopter of the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down by air defense in the Temirovka settlement of the Zaporozhye region. Konashenkov also said that a Grom-2 operational-tactical missile was intercepted during the day.
The Grom-2 missile was only mentioned on September 30 in Defense Department reports. Then the Russian armed forces attacked the Yuzhmash factory in Dnepropetrovsk, which produces the Grom-2 and Tochka-U missiles.
What is Yuzhmash?
The “Southern Machine-Building Plant” in Dnepropetrovsk was established in 1944, when the Soviet army liberated the city. Initially, the business was planned to be an automobile manufacturer. And indeed, at different times it was installed on Belarusian MAZ trolleybuses, as well as on tractors MTZ and YuMZ.
However, in Soviet times Yuzhmash was primarily known as one of the Union’s largest rocket-building enterprises. Especially in the 1950s and 60s, the facility developed and produced the USSR’s largest ballistic missile, the R-12 Sandal. Then the R-14, strategic missile systems R-23 “Molodets” were created there.
Immediately after the collapse of the USSR, Yuzhmash produced engines for the European Vega launch vehicle, as well as Zenit launch vehicles for the Russian Sea Launch space program, which were part of the American Antares space rocket units. In addition, the Ukrainian plant also built the Russian strategic missiles “Voevoda” (“Devil” according to NATO classification).
Since 2014, the company has been experiencing problems due to the lack of orders – Zenit missiles for Russia were no longer produced due to the deterioration of relations between Moscow and Kiev. From 2012 to 2020, the number of employees decreased from 10 thousand to 5 thousand.
What is “Grom-2”
The Grom-2 operational tactical missile system is a new product from Yuzhmash. Their trials were reported in 2019. Due to the start of the special operation, Kiev had to postpone them. Grom-2 is a mobile launcher for surface-to-surface missiles on the chassis of a five-axle all-terrain vehicle.
Its ancestor, the Grom complex, was developed since 1994 and, according to the Ukrainian authorities, could hit targets within a radius of up to 500 km.
Another well-known product of Yuzhmash is the Tochka-U missiles. This is a modification of the Soviet Tochka missiles, the development of which began in 1984. This single-stage solid-fuel guided missile can hit targets at a distance of 15-120 km with an accuracy of 50 meters. By 2021, Ukraine had 90 launchers and up to 700 Tochka-U missiles.
On September 30, 2022, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the armed forces struck Dnepropetrovsk and destroyed the workshops of the factory where the Grom-2 and Tochka-U missiles were assembled. These workshops were located on the territory of the “South Machine-Building Factory” production association.
On November 17 last year, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that he had launched missile attacks on Yuzhmash. Valentin Reznichenko, head of the Dnipro regional military administration, said that after the Russian attack, a fire broke out at the rocket and space enterprise.