The Bm-21 Grad multiple-barrel rocket launcher

The BM-21 Grad is a Soviet multiple-barrel rocket launcher (MBRL) system developed in the 1960s, but which continues to be used by many armed forces in hostilities. It was first used in armed conflict in March 1969 in the China-Soviet Union border conflict over Zhenbao/Damansky Island.

Weapon Characteristics and Military Utility

BM stands for combat vehicle in Russian. The launch vehicle is a six-wheel-drive truck, capable of travelling on the road at seventy-five kilometres per hour. Operated by a three-strong crew, the system can be readied to fire in three minutes, either from the truck cab or remotely from a trigger at the end of a 64-metre-long cable. It is fitted with forty launch tubes arranged in a rectangular shape that can all be fired in twenty seconds. The basic variant rocket is the 9M22, which uses an M-21-OF warhead – explaining the ‘21’ designation.

The ricket can fire high explosive-fragmentation, incendiary, cluster munition, or chemical warheads or over distances of up to 20 kilometres, but newer rockets can deliver anti-personnel or anti-vehicle mines over thirty kilometres. The rockets can be fired in a single salvo, in smaller groups, or individually. This explains the ‘Grad’ moniker, which means hail. Given its general imprecision, it is an area weapon, designed especially for enemy forces in the open, and not one that can be used for point targets.

That said, recent variants and technical upgrades have added satellite and inertial navigation targeting capacity, which mitigate to a significant extent the indiscriminate effects of the weapon system.

Producers

The Soviets were the only official producers of the BM-21, but other countries have copied the weapon system. China’s Type 81 system, for instance, is a Grad upgrade, with a longer range of forty kilometres. These were used by Hamas against Israel from 2006, including in the 2008–09 war. The ‘Tornado-G’ system is a Russian upgrade on the BM-21 that is expected to ultimately replace it. As of April 2026, India was preparing to replace its Grad capacity with a domestically produced Pinaka MBRL system that would offer greater targeting precision.

Use and Humanitarian Impacts

The Grad has been very widely used in the past, and continues to be used in hostilities today, including in the Russia-Ukraine war and in the 2025 Cambodia-Thailand border conflict. Among the conflicts in which they were used are the Vietnam War, the Eritrean War of Independence, the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, the First and Second Nagorno-Karabakh Wars, the conflicts in Chechnya, in Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, in the conflict in Tigray, and by multiple parties in the Syrian civil war.

Applicable Legal Rules

International Humanitarian Law

As with all weapons, use of the BM-21 Grad is subject to the IHL principle of distinction and the principle of proportionality in attack.

When used in populated areas, Grad rockets are indiscriminate weapons. When fired at a distance of 20 kilometres, a full salvo expected to cover an area of between 100,000 to 145,000 square metres in modern, upgraded variants, and 360,000 square metres in older ones.

Disarmament Law

There is no disarmament treaty dedicated to the BM-21, or to MBRL systems more broadly.

International Human Rights Law

Unlawful use of Grads would violate the right to life and/or the right to freedom from inhuman treatment.

IHL Violations

In the Ukraine and the Netherlands v Russia case decided by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in July 2025, there were multiple references to the indiscriminate effects of the use of the Grad system by Russian forces (paras 649, 652, 653, 663, 733).

In the conflicts over Nagorno-Karabakh, Grad systems were widely used. The attacks on Stepanakert that began in early 1992 involved the largely indiscriminate firing of many hundreds of rockets which, over the course of the spring, killed or serious wounded hundreds of people (mostly civilian) and damaged or destroyed homes and other civilian objects. Thomas de Waal recalls the words of one Azerbaijani officer, Azai Kerimov, who told him in November 2000: ‘Anyone could just get up with a hangover, after drinking the night before, sit behind the Grad and fire, fire, fire at Stepanakert without any aim, without any coordinates.’ (T. de Waal, Black Garden, Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War, p. 187.)

The Gotovina case adjudged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) concerned among others use of the Grad system. At trial and on appeal, the ICTY did not find – as it should have – that the firing from the Grad into the city of Knin was the indiscriminate use of a weapon. This is despite the amicus curiae – offered on appeal in support of General Gotovina – which affirmed that 3CEP [circular error probable] from the BM-21 at twenty kilometres was a radius of 900 metres.