Russia’s S-300 missile launch spectacularly goes wrong when the missile drops straight back down and explodes on the launcher

Embarrassing footage has emerged of a missile launch going spectacularly wrong in Russia. The S-300 is a family of surface-to-air missiles, originally developed by the Soviet Union. It was first put into operation in the late 1970s after a decade of development.

The minute-long clip shows the S-300 missile barely managing to take off before plummeting back down to earth. A small thud can be heard, and bits of debris fly off as the weapon makes a feeble attempt to launch at the military base in an unknown part of Russia.

It scarcely gets off the launchpad and is followed by a small plume of smoke, before it can be seen dropping out of the sky as shouts can be heard from those watching.

Seconds later, the rocket goes out of view as whoever is filming takes cover, and a huge explosion can be heard. The shaky camera returns to a massive plume of smoke.

The leaked footage will be of some embarrassment to Vladimir Putin, who has grown the Russian defence budget has grown by $100 billion over the past year.

It comes not long after shocking footage emerged of another failed rocket launch which killed six Russian ballistic missile technicians.

Footage of the accident, which happened several months ago but officials tried to keep quiet, was posted on social network sites. It happened near Donetsk in the Ukraine, where it is believed the missile was about to be fired against government forces.

A second OTR-21 Tochka missile was successfully launched a few seconds later from the wreckage, but there is nothing left of the launch site controlled by Russian-backed militia.

It shows a deafening explosion in a field with plumes of white smoke rising quickly into the atmosphere.

A second missile, which would also have been programmed, is still launched from the wreckage a few seconds later, presumably heading towards its intended target.

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