Ukrainian forces took out a Russian rocket system with a US weapon

Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system using a missile fired from an American-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) according to reports based on video evidence. 

According to a report from the Ukrainian news agency Censor.net, Ukrainian forces hit a BM-21 in an attack on the multiple rocket launch artillery unit in Zaporizhzhia. A video of the strike was posted by Censor.net editor-in-chief Yuri Butusov on Telegram. 

In the 25-second video, a soldier operating the BM-21 can be seen running away from the vehicle in the distance just seconds before an object that looks like a missile slams into the vehicle and explodes. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @ButusovPlus / Edited By The Daily Digest

Newsweek also reported on the incident and noted the video could be independently verified. However, the news outlet did not know that Yuri Butusov claimed that two members of the BM-21 crew were injured and a third was killed in the strike. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @ButusovPlus / Edited By The Daily Digest

This isn’t the first time video footage of a BM-21 being destroyed. In November 2024, the Ukrainian Security Service released a video with footage from several operations that showed 16 BM-21s being destroyed by drone attacks. 

Photo Credit: Telegram @ButusovPlus

The Ukrainian Security Service (SSU) published combat footage of their activities over an undisclosed fourteen-day period that saw drone operators hunt down Russian BM-21s. 

Photo Credit: X @servicessu

The BM-21 ‘Grad’ is a 122mm self-propelled rocket launcher that was developed in the 1960s but has been upgraded several times since according to Army Recognition.

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Robert Wray, CC BY-SA 3.0

Russia’s BM-21 was designed “to support the division with suppressive fire to counter anti-tank missile, artillery, and mortar positions, destroy strong points, and eliminate enemy nodes of resistance on the immediate battlefield,” Army recognition noted. 

SSU drone operators were focused on finding and attacking BM-21s fully equipped with rockets. Russian forces bad been trying to counter this type of drone strike in recent weeks. 

Militarnyi reproted that Russian forces have started adding slat armor to rocket launchers in an attempt to protect the weapons from overhead drone attacks by Ukrainian troops. 

Photo Credit: X @servicessu

However, the new slat armor isn’t always effective at protecting rocket launchers from Ukrainian drone strikes since the armor can't cover the area where rockets are loaded. 

SSU drone operators focused on hitting the rear rocket loading areas of launchers as an effective new tactic to counter Russian attempts to protect their vulnerable vehicles. 

Photo Credit: X @servicessu

Militarnyi reported that the new tactic has proven quite successful, something that was proven true from the combat footage published by the SSU on X on November 9th. 

Photo Credit: X @servicessu

In the video, several scenes show Ukrainian drones smashing into the most vulnerable part of several BM-21s, causing most of the Russian rocket launchers to explode. 

Photo Credit: X @servicessu

While most of the drones focus on hitting the rear of the rocket launchers, some parts of the video show drones hitting rocket ammo stored on the chassis between the launcher and the cab of the vehicle. 

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Photo Credit: X @servicessu