"We are not intimidated by the size of the armies, or the type of hardware the US has brought."
- Saddam Hussein, commenting on the build up of Coalition Forces in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield, November 12th, 1990

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 Iraqi BM-21 Grad mobile rocket launcher used against ISIS during Operation Inherent Resolve in 2017. Now in stock!

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

Release Date: November 2020

Historical Account: "Operation Inherent Resolve" - Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) is the U.S. military's operational name for the military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL, in the vernacular, Daesh), including both the campaign in Iraq and the campaign in Syria. Since September 18th, 2018, the U.S. Army's III Armored Corps has been responsible for Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR). The campaign is primarily waged by American air forces in support of local allies, most prominently the Iraqi security forces and Syrian Democratic Forces. Combat ground troops, mostly special forces and artillery, have also been deployed, especially in Iraq. 75-80% of the airstrikes have been conducted by the military of the United States, with the other 20-25% by the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.

According to the Pentagon, by March 23rd, 2019, the day of ISIL's territorial defeat in Syria, CJTF-OIR and partner forces had liberated nearly 110,000 square kilometers (42,471 square miles) of land and 7.7 million people from ISIL, the vast majority of the self-proclaimed caliphate's territory and subjects. By October 2017, around the time of ISIL's territorial defeat in Iraq, CJTF-OIR claimed that around 80,000 ISIL militants had been killed in all actions excluding those targeted by Russian and Syrian strikes. At that time of that statement, the coalition had conducted 28,198 strikes, and by the end of August 2019 it had conducted 34,573 strikes. Tens of thousands more were killed by partner forces on the ground (the Syrian Democratic Forces alone claimed to have killed 25,336 ISIL fighters by the end of 2017).