DUSHANBE, May 14, 2014, Asia-Plus – The Russian military base in Tajikistan is now armed with a Grad multiple rocket launcher system.

Russian media sources reported this yesterday referring to Lieutenant-Colonel Yuri Pogrebnoy, the deputy chief of the press service of the Central Military District.  

The BM-21 “Grad” launch vehicle, a Soviet truck-mounted 122 mm multiple rocket launcher, and a M-21OF rocket were developed in the early 1960s.  The nickname grad means ‘hail’.  The complete system with the BM-21 launch vehicle and the M-21OF rocket is designated as the M-21 Field Rocket System.  The complete system is more commonly known as a Grad multiple rocket launcher system.

Newspaper Vzglyad (View) notes that the 201st Military Base (Motorized Brigade) has also received several remotely piloted aircraft this year.

The Russian military base was officially opened in Tajikistan in 2004 under a previous agreement, which was signed in 1993, and hosts Russia’s largest military contingent deployed abroad.

A total of some 7,000 Russian troops are stationed at three military facilities collectively known as the 201st military base - in Dushanbe, Qurghon Teppa, some 100 kilometers from Dushanbe, and Kulob, about 200 kilometers southwest of Dushanbe.