Department of the Russian Ministry of Defence
Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (GRAU)
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GRAU emblem
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Active
| 1862?present
Current title from 1960
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Country
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Russia
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Type
| Central Military Authority
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Part of
| Chief of Armament and Munition of the Russian Armed Forces
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Current
commander
| Major General Nikolay Romanovsky
[
citation needed
]
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Military unit
The
Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
(Russian:
Гла?вное раке?тно-артиллери?йское управле?ние Министе?рства оборо?ны Росси?йской Федера?ции (ГРАУ Миноборо?ны Росси?и)
,
romanized
:
Glavnoye raketno-artilleriyskoye upravleniye Ministerstva oborony Rossiyskoy Federatsii (GRAU Minoborony Rossii)
), commonly referred to by its transliterated Russian acronym
GRAU
(
ГРАУ
), is a department of the
Russian Ministry of Defense
. It is subordinate to the Chief of Armament and Munition of the
Russian Armed Forces
, a vice-minister of defense.
The organization dates back to 1862 when it was established under the name Главное артиллерийское управление (ГАУ ?
GAU
). The "R" from "rockets" was added to the title from 19 November 1960.
In particular, the GRAU is responsible for assigning
GRAU indices
to
Russian army
munitions
and
equipment
.
Arsenals (Russian: Арсенал) of the GRAU, according to
Kommersant
-Vlast in 2005, include the 53rd at
Dzerzhinsk, Nizhniy Novogorod Oblast
, the 55th in the
Sklad-40
microraion at
Rzhev
, the 60th at
Kaluga
, the 63rd at Lipetsk, the 75th at
Serpukhov
south of Moscow, and the 97th at Skolin (all five in the
Moscow Military District
). An additional possibly disused arsenal in MMD is the 107th at
Toropets
.
[1]
The 5th at
Alatyr, Chuvash Republic
, the 80th Arsenal at Gagarskiy, the 103rd Arsenal at
Saransk
,
Mordovia
,
[2]
and the 116th at Krasno-Oktyabrskiy were all in the
Volga?Urals Military District
.
A major series of explosions occurred at an arms depot of the 31st Arsenal of the
Caspian Flotilla
near
Ulyanovsk
on 13 November 2009. At least two people were killed in the explosion and 43 were rescued from a bomb shelter where they had taken refuge.
[4]
There were fires and explosions at the 102nd Arsenal GRAU at
Pugachevo
(
Malaya Purga
) in
Udmurtia
(Volga-Urals Military District) in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2018, and two other incidents in 2011 at the 99th Arsenal in Bashkiria and at
Ashuluk
. There were three more fires in 2012.
On December 26, 2013, an
Antonov An-12
B transport aircraft of the Irkut company was flying along the route Novosibirsk - Irkutsk, but when landing, it crashed onto a warehouse of the 109th Arsenal GRAU located near the
Irkutsk Northwest Airport
(
Siberian Military District
).
[5]
All nine people on board were killed - six crew members and three passengers.
On 7 October 2020, a grass fire reached ammunition in open storage at
Military Unit Number
55443 (once maybe the GRAU's 97th Arsenal) near Zheltukhino (
ru:Желтухино (деревня, Рязанская область)
) in
Skopinsky District
,
Ryazan Oblast
, igniting munitions.
[6]
[7]
Whether GRAU or the
Western Military District
was responsible for the depot was not clear.
Interfaks
-AVN wrote that there were 113 warehouses and bunkers with 75,000 tons of missiles, rockets, and artillery shells (including 152-mm) at the site. A woman died from injuries and there were at least another 15 victims in stable condition; the fire and explosions "damaged 430 structures, public facilities, apartment buildings, and private homes."
As of December 2021, the Chief of the GRAU is
Major General
Nikolay Romanovsky.
[
citation needed
]
On 28 June 2022 the cell "
BOAK
-Vladimir" published a
press release
claiming sabotage action on railway of
Military Unit Number
55443 VD Barsovo (51st Arsenal of the GRAU) near
Kirzhach
in
Vladimir Oblast
. The rails were damaged. BOAK's press release stated, "Every stopped train helps to get rid of missiles and rockets, which could hit peaceful Ukrainian cities!"
[8]
Current GRAU indices
[
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]
GRAU indices are of the form
⟨number⟩
⟨letter⟩
⟨number⟩
, sometimes with a further suffix
⟨letter⟩
⟨number⟩
. They may be followed by a specially assigned codename. For example "
2 S 19
Msta-S
", the
2S19 Msta
self-propelled howitzer, has the index
2S19
, without suffix;
Msta-S
is the codename.
Misconceptions
[
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]
Several common misconceptions surround the scope and originating body of these indices. The GRAU designation is not an industrial designation, nor is it assigned by the design bureau. In addition to its GRAU designation, a given piece of equipment could have a design name, an industrial name and a service designation.
For example, one of the
surface-to-air missiles
in the
S-25 Berkut
air defense system had at least four domestic designations:
- design name: La-205
- GRAU index: 5V7
- industry name: Article 205 (
Izdeliye 205
)
- Soviet military designation: V-300
Some Soviet
general-purpose bombs
bore a designation that looked confusingly similar to GRAU.
[note 1]
Designation scheme
[
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]
The first part of a GRAU index is a number indicating which of the several main categories of equipment a given item belongs to. The second part, a
Cyrillic
character, indicates the subcategory. The third part, a number, indicates the specific model. The optional suffix can be used to differentiate variants of the same model.
1 (Radio and electronics equipment)
[
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]
2 (Artillery systems)
[
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]
3 (Army and naval missiles)
[
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]
4 (Naval missiles and army equipment (munitions, reactive armour, etc.))
[
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]
5 (Air defense equipment)
[
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]
- 5Ae:
Computers
(5Ae26, a specialized multi-
CPU
computer with a performance of 1.5
MIPS
)
- 5B:
Surface-to-air missile
warheads (5B18, the warhead for the
S-125
's V-601 missile)
- 5P: Surface-to-air missile launchers (5P75, the four-missile launcher for the
S-125
air defense system)
- 5V:
Surface-to-air missiles
(5V55,
SAM
for
S-300
air defense system)
- 5Ya: Surface-to-air missiles (5Ya23, a SAM for the
S-75
air defense system)
- 5#
- * 51T6 (SH-11/
ABM-4
Gorgone), an
exoatmospheric
anti-ballistic missile
interceptor for the
A-135
air defense system
- *
53T6
(SH-08/
ABM-3
Gazelle), an endoatmospheric interceptor for A-135
air defense system
6 (Firearms, air defense equipment)
[
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]
- 6B:
Body armor
(
6B1
; 6B13, for mountain troops;
6B23
,
MOLLE
;
6B43
, MOLLE for airborne, naval and special troops),
helmets
(
6B6
)
- 6Ch: Firearm equipment (
6Ch12
, the
PBS-1
flash suppressor
and
silencer
; 6Ch63, AK modernize kit; 6Ch64, front grip)
- 6E: Firearm equipment (6E7, flashlight)
- 6G: Grenade or rocket launchers (6G3, the
RPG-7
man-portable,
rocket-propelled grenade
launcher
; 6G17, the
VOG-25
40 mm grenade cartridge)
- 6Kh:
Knives
and
bayonets
(6Kh3, a
sword-bayonet
for the
AKM
)
- 6P: Firearms (6P1, the 7.62 mm
AKM
, and 6P41/6P41M,
PKP
)
- 6Sh: Firearm equipment (6Sh5, a rifle sling; 6Sh92, tactical vest; 6Sh104,
SVD
/
VSS
vest for sniper and backpack with rain cover and 2 side MOLLE pouches; 6Sh105, normal or digital tactical vest; 6Sh112,
MOLLE
tactical vest for
PKM
/
PKP
machine-gunner)
- 6T: Firearm equipment (6T2, Samozhenkov's carriage for
PKS machine gun
)
- 6Ts:
Sights
(6Ts1, the PSO-1 sight for the
Dragunov
sniper rifle)
- 6U: Firearm equipment (6U1, personnel carrier vehicle carriage for PKB/PKBM machine gun)
- 6V:
Firearms
(6V1, the
Dragunov sniper rifle
)
- 6Yu: Firearm accessories kit (6Yu4, accessories kit for the
AKM
)
- 6Zh: Firearm equipment (6Zh1M, a 100-round belt-box for the
PKM machine gun
)
- 6L: Magazine (6L20, bakelite plastic
5.45×39mm
magazine
for the
AK-74
)
7 (Firearm munitions)
[
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]
Exceptions
[
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]
- 71Kh6: the US-KMO Prognoz-2 early warning system
satellite
- 73N6
Baikal-1
: an automated air defense command and control system
- 75E6
Parol-3
: the IFF interrogator for the S-75M and S-125
- 76N6: a low-altitude target detector
radar
8 (Army missiles and rocketry)
[
edit
]
9 (Army missiles, UAVs)
[
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]
10 (Equipment)
[
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]
- 10P:
Sights
(10P19, the PGO-7V sight for RPG-7V grenade launcher)
- 10R:
Radios
(10R30
Karat-2
, a radio transmitter)
11 (Rocketry and associated equipment)
[
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]
- 11A: Rocketry (11A51, the Korolev
N1
heavy-lift launcher, 11A511, the
Soyuz
launcher)
- 11B: Nuclear thermal rocket engines (
11B91 (RD0410)
; 11B97)
- 11D:
Rocket engines
(11D43, the RD-253 liquid fuel rocket engine (First stage of
Proton space launcher
))
- 11F:
Satellites
(11F67
Molniya-1
, a telecom satellite; 11F35 K1
Buran
(the first
Buran
-class shuttle; see also "
#1 (Radio and electronics equipment)
"); 11F654
GLONASS
satellites
; 11F94
LK
, a lunar lander)
- 11G: Equipment (11G12, a refuelling station)
- 11K: Rocketry (11K25
Energia
, a heavy-lift rocket for the
Buran
?class shuttle)
- 11M: Onboard equipment (11M243,
solar array
actuators for the 11F624
Yantar-2K
satellite)
- 11P: Ground equipment (11P825, the launch complex for the 11K25)
- 11S:
Rocket stages
(11S59, the 1st and 2nd stages ("unit A") of the
Soyuz rocket
)
14 (Rocketry and associated equipment)
[
edit
]
- 14A: Rockets (14A15, is the "
Soyuz-2-1v
")
- 14D:
Rocket engines
(14D30, the "Briz" booster's S5.98M liquid fuel engine)
- 14F:
Satellites
(14F10, the IS-MU
Naryad
anti-satellite weapon
)
- 14I: Ground equipment (14I02, the ground equipment for the "Briz" booster's 8P882 system)
- 14P: Ground equipment (14P72, the service system for the "Briz" booster)
- 14S:
Boosters
(14S12, the "Briz" booster)
- 14T: Ground equipment (14T81, the storage equipment for the "Briz" booster)
15 (Strategic Missile Forces equipment)
[
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]
17 (Rocketry and associated equipment)
[
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]
- 17D: Misc.
rocket engines
(17D58Ae, the stabilization and orientation engine of the "Briz-M" booster)
- 17F:
Satellites
(17F15
Raduga-1
, a telecommunications satellite)
- 17K: Space-based systems (17K114, a space-based reconnaissance and targeting system)
- 17P: Ground equipment (17P31, the start system for 11K25)
- 17S:
Rocket stages
(17S40, Unit D of the Proton launcher)
- 17U: Ground equipment (17U551, the "Briz-M" booster testing system)
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
For example, the FAB-250sch entered service in 1944 with the designation
7-F-334
, which was not assigned by GRAU.
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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