The BM-21 Grad is a famous Soviet/Russian weapon. Since its introduction in 1963, it spread like wildfire across the Eastern Block countries and, really, the world. While the Grad might be an old-school weapon, it is still widely used today. Including Russia’s war against Ukraine. And Russia lost a lot of them already.
Grad system destroyed in Ukraine. One of several hundred. Image credit: Mykola Vasylechko via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The BM-21 Grad is a Soviet-origin multiple launch rocket system, capable of launching twenty 122 mm rockets in a quick salvo. These rockets are not guided in any way, the Grad cannot be considered a precise weapon. They rain down like hail (“grad” in Russian means hail) into an area, destroying dugouts, equipment, and soldiers. Or residential buildings.
The Grad is weirdly cheap, and Russia has thousands of them. The effective firing range is not very long, which means that Grads are frequently within reach for small combat drones or counter battery fire. And so, it comes as no surprise that Ukraine’s 79th separate airborne assault brigade has recently hit a Russian Grad system east of Myrnohrad, Donetsk region.
What is special about this is that this particular Grad was fully loaded. All launch tubes were full of rockets. This generally means that the system had to explode into a huge destructive firework, but that was not filmed.
What can also be noted is that in that video, you can see people running away from the Grad just before it was hit. They knew in what kind of vulnerable position that Grad got itself into. Especially being so full of ammo. That Grad did carry an anti-drone cage – make-shift protection, which is meant to work like slat armour and also like spaced armour. However, FPV drones are too manoeuvrable, and it is difficult to imagine that this Grad had any chance of surviving such a precise hit. But Russia doesn’t even count Grad losses.
The BM-21 Grad was made in unbelievable numbers. It is estimated that over 100,000 of such systems were ever made. Not all of them were produced in the Soviet Union/Russia, but Russia has thousands of them in storage. And hundreds of 9K51M Tornado-Gs, which is an advanced version of the original BM-21.
According to the open source intelligence project Oryxsince the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have lost at least 355 Grad systems. These are only visually confirmed losses and not all Grad explosions were filmed and posted online. A significant portion of these losses can be attributed to Ukrainian drone activity.
Written by Povilas M.
Source: Armyinform.com.ua
