Russia takes first deliveries of Penicillin artillery reconnaissance system

The first Penicillin acoustic artillery reconnaissance system has been delivered to the Russian armed forces by the Vega Concern, a company within Russia’s Rostec State Corporation, according to a 22 January post on the company’s Facebook page.

In March 2020 the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported that the first 1B76 Penicillin systems would be delivered to the “training centre for the combat use of missile forces and artillery, stationed in the Saratov region”, by the end of that year. This training centre is thought to be the 631st Training Centre for the combat use of artillery as part of the Central Military District.

A separate MoD report from early January this year claimed that the systems had been delivered in 2020, but the post by the Vega Concern now confirms that deliveries have, indeed, taken place.

The Penicillin system uses acoustic and thermal signatures generated by missiles, rockets, and conventional artillery ammunition when it is fired to deduce “exact co-ordinates of the enemy weapon’s location”, Vega said in its Facebook post.

The co-ordinates are then applied to a digital map, allowing the data to be shared with other assets in a process that takes no more than five seconds, according to the company, which added that the complex of systems works at any time of day and in temperatures from –40 to +50°C.