By Dylan Malyasov
Sep 15, 2021
Taliban members found dozens of short-range ballistic missiles and warheads stored in Panjshir Valley.
Taliban militants had taken the last holdout – Panjshir Valley in the east of Afghanistan – and released a video showing the depot of Soviet-made 9K72 Elbrus (NATO reporting name Scud B) tactical ballistic missiles and 9K52 Luna-M (NATO reporting name FROG-7) short-range artillery rockets.
A dozen missiles and artillery rockets along with warheads in separate containers were found in Panjshir Valley after the regime overcame the resistance of the remaining government forces.
Based on this video, the missile weapon have been stored in the open air for a long time and are in a deplorable state.
According to open sources, several hundred missile systems were gifted to the Afghan government in the 1980s from the friendly Soviet communist regime as military aid.
9K72 Elbrus is a tactical ballistic missile with a range of 300 km with a circular error probable (CEP) between 450-900 meters. It was designed to engage important enemy targets such as airfields, command posts, large concentrations of troops and vehicles, air defense batteries, supply depots and so on.
9K52 Luna-M is a Soviet short-range artillery rocket system that fires unguided and spin-stabilized 9M21 rockets. It was originally developed in the 1960s to provide divisional artillery support using tactical nuclear weapons but gradually modified for conventional use.
About this Author
Dylan Malyasov
U.S. defense journalist and commentator. Aviation photographer. Dylan leads Defence Blog's coverage of global military news, focusing on engineering and technology across the U.S. defense industry.
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