As Russian forces move in on another Ukrainian-controlled building,
the numerically superior Russian formations are pinned down by a few heroic Ukrainian defenders.
Wagner mercenaries, paratroopers, and regular infantry units have unsuccessfully tried for weeks
to take this apartment building. No matter how hard the Russians try to pin down the Ukrainians,
they always somehow figure out how to keep up a murderous barrage of fire on the attacking forces.
Finally, a new weapon arrives after weeks of trying and failing to take the building. Under
the cover of smoke grenades and Russian machine gun fire, the lumbering beast moves into position.
The Ukrainian defenders wonder what they are looking at. Before they can bring their weapons
to bare on the machine, it unleashes a murderous barrage of rockets that pummel the building.
To everyone's surprise, the building does not collapse. However, inside the building is a
different story. The brave defenders that survived the initial explosion are reeling from incredible
pain despite no visible injuries. Men stumble around and gasp for breath but struggle to do
so. The remaining defenders decide to evacuate the building and call in an artillery strike as
the hapless Russians think they have finally taken the building. The incoming artillery
fire destroys the building and the incredible machine that fired a barrage of lung-exploding
ordnance at them. But what did they fire, and how could a weapon cause so much damage
with little physical injury to the troops? The answer to that question is thermobaric weapons.
First developed by the United States during the Vietnam war, thermobaric weapons are among the
nastiest weapons a soldier can encounter on the battlefield. Compared to conventional weapons,
thermobaric weapons can cause three or four times the damage conventional
weapons of the same size could make. So what makes them so different?
The key here is how these weapons employ oxygen. In conventional explosives, inside the munition,
oxygen is introduced as part of the manufacturing process. Because of this, when the explosion goes
off, the munition relies upon the oxygen already present inside to start the combustion. Because
of this, the damage the munition can cause is directly related to the size of the blast
wave it can generate, as well as any shrapnel effects a country can design the bomb to create.
However, in order to increase the size of the bomb and thus make it deadlier, things like weight have
to be considered. With weight increases, larger firing platforms like bigger artillery pieces,
larger planes, and heavier shoulder-fired munitions must be built. But in combat,
excessive weight is a huge killer in terms of maneuverability of troops and equipment as well
as being a costly logistics nightmare. Thermobaric weapons solve this problem by packing a bigger
punch with the same weight as their conventional explosive counterparts. But how do they do that?
For thermobaric weapons, the key difference is when the oxygen is introduced into the equation.
As explained earlier, conventional weapons are pre-equipped with self-contained oxygen
or oxidizing agents. Thermobaric weapons instead draw oxygen from the surrounding
atmosphere. When any thermobaric weapon goes off, the first thing that happens
is an atomized fuel is spread around an area. However, this is not the kind of fuel you would
put in your car. Thermobaric weapons normally rely upon a solid-state fuel, and this is usually
some type of highly combustible metal. When the explosion goes off, this solid fuel is blown apart
into a fine mist of particles. Additionally, the heat that is generated from the initial explosion
is incredibly hot, with most weapons generating heat between 2500 to 3000 degrees Celsius.
This incredible heat combined with the atomized metal fuel creates an intense need for oxygen.
But with no internal source, basic physics would dictate that it draws oxygen from the surrounding
environment. Because of this, the bomb sucks the oxygen from a wide area to fuel the explosion,
hence creating a vacuum. When it does this, the pressure created by the vacuum is so great that
it can cause debilitating injuries to people in places they thought were safe. Bunkers, buildings,
trenches, and caves are all prime targets for this kind of munition for this very reason.
But if you thought that was scary enough, it gets even worse. According to a US Defense
Intelligence Agency report from the 1990s, the effects of a thermobaric weapon on people
go beyond sucking air from their lungs. The immense pressure wave can throw people around,
create massive internal injuries, and cause bubbles to appear in a person’s
cardiovascular system. These bubbles can cause fatal injuries like heart attacks and stroke up
to 48 hours after surviving the initial explosion. Additionally, depending on how well the fuel was
consumed, excess fuel lying around could cause injuries similar to chemical weapons. Severe
chemical burns, rashes, and toxic fumes from the burning heavy metals can cause lingering issues
and make an area uninhabitable for a long time. But if you think Russia using these kinds of
weapons as a last resort, then think again. Over the past several decades, Russia has
embraced thermobaric weapons as a mainstay in its military arsenal and has incorporated them on
a broader scale than any other country globally. Beginning in the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan,
the Soviets quickly realized that they needed a heavy weapon that could defeat mujahadeen
fighters dug into caves and mountainsides. After years of pounding them with conventional
ordnance failed, the Soviets developed several technologies they continue to use to this day.
The first of those technologies was the man-portable thermobaric system known as
the RPO Schmel. The Schmel looks like the legacy American Light Anti-Tank Weapon,
but instead of firing a conventional warhead, it fires a thermobaric one. Weighing in at about 24
pounds, this single-use fire-and-forget weapon has an effective range of up to 300 meters. But
despite being small, it packs a huge punch. Most estimates place the warhead's blast as equivalent
to a 155mm artillery round going off. Further developments to the Schmel during the mid-2000s
have reportedly made this explosion even bigger. Russia has an even bigger thermobaric weapon in
its TOS-1. Also developed during the Soviet-Afghan war, the TOS-1 is basically a bigger version of
the Schmel on wheels. Built on the chassis of the T-72 tank, the TOS-1 can fire several dozen 220mm
thermobaric rockets. Early versions of the TOS-1 had a very limited range of around 1000 meters,
but upgraded versions of the TOS allegedly have ranges pushing several kilometers or more.
It’s this vehicle that our Ukrainian defenders encountered and destroyed earlier in the video.
The TOS-1 is so powerful some people have called it a poor man's nuke. With the ability to fire
several dozen rockets in just six seconds, its use during the Chechen wars and currently
in Ukraine have made it a very potent weapon. Thankfully, even though it’s a powerful weapon,
Russia has routinely shown it’s incompetent at maneuver warfare, and these vehicles regularly
get cut off and destroyed. Because of this, Russia had to order several dozen more TOS-1s
late last year to replace their losses in Ukraine. Due to their inability to protect these high-value
vehicles, Russia relies primarily on the infantry-fired Schmel and their airborne
thermobaric weapon when launching attacks. Known as the ODAB-500PMV fuel-air explosive,
this airborne dropped bomb is slightly different than its land-launched counterparts.
Like any fuel-air explosive, the ODAB has two charges instead of one. The
first explosive disperses the fuel over the target area, and the second explosive ignites
it. The resulting explosion then sucks the oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere.
It’s important to note that these three weapons are just a small sample of the thermobaric
weapons that Russia has developed. In total, about thirteen different bombs, rockets, and warheads
have been produced by Russia for military use. The Russian army has also used these munitions
in combat more than anyone else in the world. After their combat debut in Afghanistan,
Russian troops used these weapons extensively during their disastrous battle for Grozny during
the First Chechen War and the subsequent invasion of Chechnya several years later.
A Chechen commander interviewed after the battle of Grozny noted that thermobaric weapons' effects
on his troops were catastrophic. Even if a building survived the explosion, his troops
hiding in buildings would often be killed or wounded despite being far away from the blast.
This is because the atomized fuel particles can fill any nook and cranny, meaning nowhere is safe.
During Russia’s intervention in Syria, Russian and Syrian aircraft were often
seen taking off with ODAB bombs strapped to every available hardpoint. But it has
been during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that these weapons have been used exponentially more.
Because of their ability to cause widespread damage with little concern for casualties,
most countries restrict their use. But, of course, Russia is clearly not concerned with how others
view their pariah state. Thankfully for Ukraine, despite their destructive ability, their use
has been limited mainly to man-portable systems because of Ukraine denying the skies to Russian
aircraft and Russian hesitance at employing TOS-1 launchers en masse as it did earlier in the war.
For more on the state of the war, check out “Honest Look at the State of Russia’s Military”,
or watch “Why Are Russian Senior Officials Mysteriously Dying”.