Russian Atomic Mortars Spotted Moving Toward Border With Ukraine

Russian Armed Forces are deploying its massive atomic mortars to the border with Ukraine, according to videos posted on social media.

Earlier last week, video footage had emerged on social media of the Russian 2S4 Tyulpan self-propelled mortars moving toward the border with Ukraine. The heavy artillery systems were spotted at the railway station in Kropotkin, Krasnodar region.

The 2S4 Tyulpan, also known at West as the M-1975, is a Soviet design 240-mm self-propelled mortar.

The heavy mortar mounted on a tracked, self-propelled chassis. A hydraulic system raises and lowers the tube from the carrying position to the firing position. As was customary, the self-propelled artillery system was christened with an alpha-numeric designator (the 2S4) and the name of a flower (the Tulip).

Due to the large size, it can fire high-explosive, incendiary, guided, cluster, neutron and nuclear warheads, some of which are capable of hitting targets at a distance of about 20 km. It can also fire the “Smel’chak” (“Daredevil”), a laser-guided round.

The 2S4 self-propelled mortars had been practically removed from service, with around 430 of these weapons remaining in Russia, kept in storage at military bases, but since 2016 they were partially returned to service.

In addition, earlier in November 2017, Russian media reported the Urals Transport Engineering Plant (Uraltransmash) modernized a batch of unique self-propelled mortars, which for a long time were in reserve. According to the local media, the exact number of upgraded self-propelled mortars is kept secret, but it is noteworthy that the project has been started in 2016.

In December 2017, the artillery brigade of the 2nd combined arms army stationed in the Orenburg region has officially received the first batch of 8 upgraded 2S4 self-propelled mortars.

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