Adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko said that in Kyiv “for the first time the fact of using the latest weapons – shells that descend on parachutes was recorded.”
He also added that this is the most brutal weapon. At the same time, there was no explanation for why – from the adviser and News Hub decided to close this gap.
To put it very simply, parachutes are used in only two of the most common types of ammunition – lighting and cluster munitions. There is also an unlikely option that these are “mountain” rockets.
Lighting, in principle, do not pose any threat to themselves, because they are used in the dark for illumination on the battlefield.
The other thing is cassettes. In some of them, for example, in the 9M55K1 rocket for the 300-mm Smerch multiple launch rocket system, parachutes are indeed used.
It is needed in order for the projectile to “scatter” individual sub-munitions.
They may look like this:
Or like this:
These are the shells that were used during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. And civilians fell under their action.
The principle of these sub-munitions is that each of them has its own individual guidance. Usually, this is a rather primitive thermal homing head, which must react to the heat of armored vehicles. But in practice, it can also capture civilian cars.
At the same time, the most common cluster munitions do not have additional guidance systems at all and are simply scattered over the area.
Given the general low quality of military equipment made in the Russian Federation, it should be noted that the area that was shelled by the ruscists with cluster munitions poses an increased danger. There is a possibility that Sub-munitions will not detonate and will lie on the ground.
There is also an option that these can be special rockets for combat operations in mountainous conditions. In it, the parachute is used to destroy targets on reverse slopes, crevices, etc. One of these projectiles is the 9M539 for the Tornado-G MLRS, which was first demonstrated several years ago.
Therefore, it is necessary to be extremely careful, do not approach suspicious objects, especially do not pick them up.