Watch this Russian S-300 Surface-to-Air Missile Fail Epically

If you’re looking for a highly effective laxative that’s sure to clear your bowels explosively, look no further than the S-300 missile system. The video below was posted just this past weekend of a live-fire exercise from August of this year, wherein Russian Air Defence Force anti-aircraft/air defense units were due to launch a series of S-300 (SA-10 Grumble) long range surface-to-air missiles as part of what should have been a routine training evolution.

Watch what happens next…

After the S-300 is triggered, the initial launch stage fires it up into the air from its vertical launch tube, though the second stage’s rocket motor fails to ignite. Moments later, as soldiers look on with (what I’m sure was) a combination of horror and fascination, the S-300 seems to hang in the air and then plummet back to Earth. Smoke pours out from the resulting explosion, which is actually part-dying missile, part-warheads cooking off, and part-launch systems blowing up. All technicians and air defense specialists present had zero issues with constipation that day.

Conversely, this is what a successful S-300 launch looks like:

Just a few seconds after the missile breaks out of its launch tube, the onboard main rocket motor kicks in and shoots the projectile to its operating altitude, where it’ll level off and fly at breakneck speeds towards whatever target it was slaved to.

The S-300 has served with the Russian military since the late 1970s, and launch failures aren’t anything new, even with the most modern versions of the missile. Just last year, social media saw a video shared widely of an S-300 blowing up after shooting out of its launch tube, all thanks to its second-stage motor not igniting as it should have. Thankfully, nobody was harmed grievously in that particular incident.

The Russian military operates a combination of land and sea-based S-300s, all modernized to PM2 and V4 standards.