Zemledeliye (Russian: Земледелие,

Agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

) is a Russian remote minelaying system ( or ISDM). It is designed for the rapid creation of

minefields A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, whic ...

from a distance in particularly dangerous areas. The system is used in the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, most notably during

2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive In early June 2023, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine launched a Counter-offensive, counteroffensive against Russian forces Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupying its territory with a goal of breaching the front lines ...

Development

In the 1970s, after military trials, the Soviet military declined to adopt a similar system based on the Grad and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems, due to their poor accuracy over long distances and the inability to control the configuration of the deployed minefield. Such a minefield could become a threat not only to the enemy, but also to friendly troops. Russian military concluded tests of Zemledeliye system in late 2020, during the

Caucasus 2020 Strategic command and staff exercise "Caucasus-2020" (), commonly known as Caucasus 2020 (also called Kavkaz 2020), was a multinational Military exercise#Command Post, command post exercise in Russia. The exercise took place from September 21 to ...

exercises.

Sergey Chemezov Sergey Viktorovich Chemezov (; born 20 August 1952) is a Russian oligarch and politician who served as CEO of Rostec Corporation, a state-owned defense conglomerate. A former KGB agent and high-ranking general, Chemezov befriended Vladimir Puti ...

said that in addition to missiles with mines, high-precision ammunition has also been developed for the weapon, and for their production a special workshop was built at the

NPO Splav NPO Splav () is one of the leading global developers and manufacturers of multiple rocket launcher systems (MLRS), and one of the key companies providing Russian arms for the global market in the segment. It is the only company in Russia which des ...

Description

The operating principle of Zemledeliye is similar to a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS). Externally, the system somewhat resembles the Grad and

Tornado-G The Tornado is a family of multiple rocket launchers of 122 to 300mm calibre developed by NPO Splav for the Russian Ground Forces with the aim to replace previous multiple rocket launchers. Variants of the system, which include the Tornado-G and ...

MLRS and, like them, has 122 mm caliber, but for minelaying it uses ammunition with a solid fuel engine, filled with various types of mines. Each armored KamAZ carries two pods of 25 missiles loaded with mines. Their flight range is 5 to 15 km. Course-corrected missiles allow the Zemledeliye to deploy a minefield in a matter of minutes. The system fires rockets that scatter mines at a given location. In accordance with the second protocol of the

Geneva Convention upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...

, each mine is equipped with programmable

self-destruct A self-destruct is a mechanism that can cause an object to destroy itself or render itself inoperable after a predefined set of circumstances has occurred. Self-destruct mechanisms are typically found on devices and systems where malfunction coul ...

mechanisms. This ensures that minefields do not last forever, but are deactivated after a certain time without human intervention. The complex consists of: a combat vehicle on an eight-wheeled KamAZ-6560 armored chassis, a transport-loading vehicle and launch containers with engineering ammunition. The combat vehicle is equipped with a

satellite navigation system A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scientif ...

, a computer and a weather station, which allows it to make adjustments and take into account the influence of weather on the flight of missiles.

Service history

In December 2020 Zemledeliye was reported to enter service with the

Armed Forces of Russian Federation The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Ground Forces, Navy, and Aerospace Forces—two independent combat ...

, and

Rostec Rostec, formally trading as State Corporation "Rostec", fully the State Corporation for the Promotion of the Development, Manufacture, and Export of High Tech Products "Rostec" and formerly Rostekhnologii, is a Russian State corporation (Russia), ...

began supplying the system to troops. Russia has used Zemledeliye during the

. Most notably it was deployed to repel the

Operators

References

{{Soviet and Russian artillery after WW2 Self-propelled artillery of Russia 122 mm artillery