TOS family Heavy Flamethrowers

I can't say for sure but at a guess the physical dimensions of the vehicle and upper structure is limited so it will fit in transport planes and on rail cars for transport so with the cages fitted with a useful distance between the cages and the rocket tubes the available space for rocket tubes is reduced.

I would also say that the potency of the rockets has improved and instead of having 30 rockets on one vehicle, having 15 rockets means needing more vehicles but because they are relatively automated and don't need to line up side by side to fire you can have your thirty rockets coming from two separate places, making the job of taking out your vehicles twice as hard.

Precision and improved warhead power might mean most of the time fewer rockets will be needed so the launch vehicles can carry fewer rockets.

With longer flight ranges they can be fired from further back which massively increases the area you would need to scan to find these vehicles before they fire.

Once they do fire having multiple vehicles means they can scatter and disappear easier too because they are firing fewer rockets so they will be empty sooner and on the move quicker to hide and be reloaded.

The-thing-next-door wrote:Why so few rockets? Surely the chassis could carry more.

I might be wrong but the rocket launcher part looks longer than the original version so I think the rockets are now longer with added range, so maybe the weight of the launcher is still the same but rockets being bigger so it carries less due weight restriction. I might be wrong though.

https://iz.ru/1707496/bogdan-stepovoi-andrei-fedorov/put-drakona-v-voiska-postupila-novaia-tiazhelaia-ognemetnaia-sistema-tos-3

I saw a recent video of a TOS attack along a tree line and the rocket impacts and explosions were very much closer together than usual... they seemed to land along the forested strip next to a road.... I suspect they are either guided or they have modified them to improve their accuracy.

The Smerch rockets had gyros to stabilise their flight and keep the rocket group together when firing at max range so they didn't spread out too far to be useless.

Not high tech or expensive... simple and sensible and cheap and made the volley of rockets land much closer together when fired at max range.

(note GLONASS guided rockets would be vulnerable to jamming, but gyrostabilised rockets don't use external sensors or signals for accuracy).

As an example if you added a gyro stabiliser to an RPG-7 rocket it would correct its habit of turning into the wind in flight...

https://rostec.ru/media/news/rostekh-razrabotal-nevidimoe-pokrytie-dlya-ognemetnykh-sistem-tosochka/#middle
The coating allows concealing equipment from detection in the optical and near infrared range, as well as from high-precision weapons
Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense
The Rostec State Corporation's Ruselectronics holding company has begun deliveries of camouflage radio-absorbing kits for the TOS-2 heavy flamethrower systems. The coating allows concealing the equipment from detection in the optical and near IR range, as well as from high-precision weapons.

The basis of the new camouflage is a special radio-absorbing fabric and panels with camouflage material, which are fixed to the armor and do not interfere with movement. This allows the gun to be hidden from detection not only when parked, but also on the march, as well as during combat use.

The new material absorbs radiation in the optical and near IR range. This allows it to effectively counteract modern guidance systems, as well as detection by thermal imagers and other devices.

"The design of the coating allows for the soil and dust that fall on its surface to be washed away with water during operation. Thanks to this, military equipment camouflage can be used continuously. The first kits are already being used in the special military operation zone. They have proven their effectiveness," Rostec said.

TOS-2 is a heavy flamethrower system designed to clear buildings, bunkers and field fortifications. It can also hit lightly armored vehicles and transport vehicles. Unguided rockets in thermobaric and incendiary equipment are used for firing. It is in service with radiation, chemical and biological defense troops. It is implemented on a three-axle 6×6 wheeled chassis of the Ural-63704-0010 vehicle with an armored cabin. It is a deep modernization of the TOS-1A

I wonder how an Armata based TOS with 300mm rockets would perform.

Better crew protection and comfort, but probably quite a bit more expensive to buy and operate.

In terms of the weapon system I would say it would perform about the same so they might just leave an Armata based model till older models are no longer available or in use.

The Armata design is designed to allow full remote operation but I suspect older T series tanks will be adapted to do the same so remote controlled T-90 and T-72 based vehicles probably make more sense than enhanced crew protection Armata based models.

Eventually when Armata based vehicles are standardised and all vehicles in an armoured division are all Armatas then it makes sense to have Armata based TOS vehicles, but by then they might be TOS-5 or TOS-6.