The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine is planning to bring back into service some of its mothballed TOR all-weather, short-range surface-to-air missile systems and to update them.

The first repaired 9K330 Tor self-propelled air defence system was displayed during the «Might of the Undefeated» arms exhibition in Kyiv on August 24. Early, the Ukrainian 9K330 missile systems were in service at least until 2001 but later were removed from service because of the inability to keep in working order.

According to a source in the country’s defence industry, the State enterprise “Lviv Radio Repair Plant” has been selected for repair and overhaul work on 9K330 Tor air defence system. All information on this project is kept secret.

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The State enterprise “Lviv Radio Repair Plant” is part of the Ukroboronprom and it is the plant for repair and overhaul work on the radar location stations of air target reconnaissance (P-18, PRV-16, PRV-13, NRZ-4P, NRZ-6P, AGU P-14, AGU 5N84A, radar station of air defense systems S-125, S-75).

The 9K330 Tor is commonly known by its NATO reporting name, SA-15 “Gauntlet”. The Tor self-propelled missile system is especially designed to protect the most important military and civil objects from air strikes carried out using aircraft, helicopters, cruising missiles, guided missiles, aerial guided and non-guided bombs, UAVs, etc. under any lighting and weather conditions.

The 9K330 Tor air defence missile system is armed with 8 surface-to-air guided missiles. The missile’s high-explosive fragmentation warhead and an active proximity fuse allow it to destroy targets moving at speeds of 700m/s and altitudes of 6,000m, within a range of 12km. The anti-aircraft missile system is based on a GM-355 tracked combat vehicle, which can travel at a road speed of approximately 65km/h for a range of 500km.