"By powerful artillery fire, air strikes, and a wave of attacking tanks, we're supposed to swiftly crush the enemy."
- Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov

The BM-21 launch vehicle (Grad) is a Soviet truck-mounted 122 mm multiple rocket launcher, and a M-21OF rocket were developed in the early 1960s. BM stands for boyevaya mashina, combat vehicle, and the nickname grad means hail. The complete system with the BM-21 launch vehicle and the M-21OF rocket has designation as M-21 Field Rocket System. The complete system is more commonly known as a Grad multiple rocket launcher system. In NATO countries, the system (either the complete system or the launch vehicle only) was initially known as M1964. Several other countries have copied it or developed similar systems.

The M-21 field rocket system with a BM-21 launch vehicle (122 mm multiple rocket launcher (MRL) system) entered service with the Soviet Army in 1963 to replace the aging 140 mm BM-14 system. The launch vehicle consists of a Ural-375D 6x6 truck chassis fitted with a bank of 40 launch tubes arranged in a rectangular shape that can be turned away from the unprotected cab. The vehicle is powered by a water-cooled V8 180 hp gasoline engine, has a maximum road speed of 75 km/h (47 mph), road range of up to 750 kilometers (470 mi), and can cross fords up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) deep. The original vehicle together with supporting equipment (including the re-supply truck 9T254 with 60 rockets) is referred to by the GRAU index "9K51"; the launcher itself has the industrial index of "2B5". In 1976, the BM-21 was mounted on the newer Ural-4320 6x6 army truck.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of an Russian BM-21 Grad mobile rocket launcher that took part in the Victory Day Parade, held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, during May 2015. Now in stock!

Dimensions:
Length: 3-1/2-inches
Width: 1-1/2-inches

Release Date: April 2021

Historical Account: "Trooping the Colors" - The 2017 Moscow Victory Day Parade was a military parade that took place in Red Square in Moscow on May 9th, 2017, to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. The annual parade marks the Allied victory in World War II on the Eastern Front, on the same day as the signing of the German act of capitulation to the Allies in Berlin, at midnight of 9 May 1945 (Russian time). President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin delivered his fourteenth holiday address to the nation after the parade inspection presided over by Minister of Defense General of the Army Sergey Shoygu.

For the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of Russia, the 2017 parade was the first for its current Senior Director of Music, Colonel Timofey Mayakin, who was appointed in this capacity last August 2016, succeeding the now deceased Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, the former Senior Director of Music and conductor of the Moscow area massed bands for the holiday parades for a record 14 years, who was in the 2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash.

President of Moldova Igor Dodon was present at the parade after confirming that he would be present at the parade in a meeting with Putin.

The 2017 Moscow parade was the first and only parade so far in modern times to have its flypast segment cancelled due to bad weather for the first time since the flypasts resumed in 2008. General of the Army Shoygu, Colonel General Salyukov as well as parading officers from all service branches (land, sea and air) also wore new officer uniforms (the Ground and Aerospace Forces uniforms being a throwback to the M1943 dress uniforms). ODON National Guardsmen also wore new 4 button uniforms with a new shoulder board design.