Main Missile and Artillery Directorate

The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate, commonly referred to by its transliterated acronym GRAU, is a department of the Ministry of Defence of Russia responsible for the military acquisition and equipment of the Russian Armed Forces. It is subordinate to the Chief of Armament and Munition of the Russian Armed Forces, a vice-minister of the Ministry of Defence.
The GRAU was established in 1862 to provide equipment and training for the Imperial Russian Army. It was reorganised several times under the Soviet Union before reaching its current form on 19 November 1960. The GRAU is responsible for assigning GRAU Indices – the official designations for all equipment and ammunition used by the Russian military – and currently operates most of the arsenals of the Russian Armed Forces.
As of April 2025, the Chief of the GRAU was Major-general Aleksey Volkov, who was appointed in May 2024 and succeeded Lieutenant-general Nikolai Parshin who took office in mid-2012.

History

The Main Artillery Directorate was established on 28 December 1862 by Order No. 375 issued by Count Dmitry Milyutin, the Minister of War of the Russian Empire. The GAU supervised the supply of the Imperial Russian Army, not only with artillery guns and ammunition, but also with small arms, and also supervised the combat training and staffing of artillery units. State-owned military factories were subordinate to it. The GAU was headed by a General–Feldtseykhmeyster and in 1908 the specific position of Chief of the GAU was introduced.
During the First World War, the GAU played a key role in supplying the Russian army with weapons and ammunition. During this period it was headed by General of Artillery Dmitry Kuzmin-Karavaev until May 1915, when he was replaced by General of Artillery Alexey Manikovsky.
In December 1917, in connection with the October Revolution and the final collapse of the Russian military, the GAU was reorganized by the Bolsheviks into the Artillery Directorate. It continued its work uninterrupted and no fundamental changes were made to it. On 15 October 1918, the position of Inspector of Artillery was established for the leadership and management of artillery at the headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. From August 1921, the position was renamed Chief of Artillery of the Red Army. The same year, the Artillery Directorate became the Main Artillery Directorate. In accordance with his duties, the Inspector of Artillery supervised the combat activity of the Red Army's artillery, the creation of new artillery formations, the recruitment of personnel, and the preparation of key documents concerning the development of artillery. The total number of employees was 734.
From June 1922 to 1924, the former General-Lieutenant, Red Commander Georgi Sheideman led the artillery efforts. The number of guns and mortars available to the troops rose from 10,700 in 1932, to 34,000 by the beginning of the Second World War, in 1939.

"The central warehouses of the GAU, as a rule, were of the 1st category. In the military districts there were warehouses of all categories, but warehouses of the 3rd and 4th categories prevailed. In 1940, all warehouses that had equipment and assembly shops and turned into large military production enterprises were renamed bases."
"The most intensive construction of central ammunition depots was noted in the third five-year plan, when 13 warehouses with a design storage capacity of 3,000 wagons of ammunition each were built and continued. Under favourable conditions, the construction of such a warehouse was completed within four years."
"Depending on the storage capacity and the availability of production workshops, all artillery depots were divided into 4 categories, as a rule, according to operational capacity:
a) warehouses of the 1st category, which included production workshops and storage capacities of up to 5000 wagons of cargo;
b) warehouses of the 2nd category had storage capacities of 700 and more wagons;
c) warehouses of the 3rd category - up to 500 wagons of cargo, respectively;
d) warehouses of the 4th category - up to 200 wagons of cargo, respectively."
"The average capacity of the central warehouse for the specified period increased from 1800 to 2100 wagons, and the average capacity of the warehouse of district subordination decreased from 610 to 415 wagons. The construction of low-power district depots was due to the need to disperse mobilization stocks of ammunition, which, as a result of their advancement to the state border, became more vulnerable to air strikes."

There were at least 33 central weapons/ammunition bases in five districts.
Marshal of Artillery Nikolai Yakovlev became head of the GAU at the beginning of the invasion, and held the post throughout the war.
Ammunition depots were established for the Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War. From August 8-10, 1988, there were fires and explosions in the 3704th Ammunition Depot of the 40th Army, located in the Kelgai Valley near Puli Khumri. The detonation of the explosives storage facility, according to eyewitnesses, resembled a nuclear one with the appearance of a characteristic "mushroom cloud". Eight soldiers and one civilian cook may have been killed, with others wounded. Western sources reported that the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied there had been any casualties.
After the declaration of independence of Ukraine, the 61st Arsenal at Lozovaya with a technical area of 247 hectares and a total area of 488.4 hectares was transferred to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. On August 27, 2008, a fire broke out at the arsenal, which led to the explosions of shells.
There has been large-scale use of ammunition since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has led to much of the Soviet-era ammunition being used up.

Arsenals

Arsenals of the GRAU, according to Kommersant-Vlast in 2005, included 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, the 97th at Skolin and the 107th at Toropets, all six in the Moscow Military District. The 5th at Alatyr, Chuvash Republic, the 80th Arsenal at Gagarskiy, the 103rd Arsenal at Saransk, Mordovia, and the 116th at Krasno-Oktyabrskiy were all in the Volga–Urals Military District.

Fires and explosions

Since 2009, there have been a number of fires and explosions at GRAU ammunition storage depots.

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.
There were fires and explosions at the 102nd Arsenal GRAU at Pugachevo in Udmurtia 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-12B 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. 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 near Zheltukhino in Skopinsky District, Ryazan Oblast, igniting munitions. Whether GRAU or the Western Military District was responsible for the depot was unclear. Interfaks-AVN wrote that there were 113 warehouses and bunkers with 75,000 tons of missiles, rockets, and artillery shells 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."
On 28 June 2022 the cell "BOAK-Vladimir" published a press release claiming sabotage action on railway of the 51st Arsenal GRAU, Barsovo, 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!"
On 4 September 2024 the railroad tracks at the entrance to the 93rd GRAU arsenal of military unit 55443-TD near Kuzhenkino and 7 km West-northwest of Borisovsky Khotilovo air base saw an extensive fire detected by NASA's FIRMS.
Toropets depot explosions – On the night of 17–18 September 2024, during the Russo-Ukrainian War, Ukraine launched a drone attack on the 107th Arsenal GRAU ammunition depot in Toropets, causing a massive series of explosions and fires while damaging much of the town. The attack resulted in an earthquake-magnitude blast, and NASA satellites detected the resulting fires over an area of approximately. The blast wave spread up to and was estimated to be consistent with of high-explosives detonating. The Security Service of Ukraine claimed that "Iskander, Tochka and KAB missiles" were stored at the facility. Russian officials reported that 13 people had been injured and that an evacuation of the area had been ordered.
On 21 September 2024 both the 23rd Arsenal GRAU near Oktyabrsky and the 719th Artillery Ammunition Depot near Tikhoretsk caught fire due to drone attacks. The 23rd Arsenal is located 16 km south of Toropets, where the GRAU arsenal was still on fire from the attack three days prior.
On 9 October 2024 the ammunition storage area at the 67th Arsenal GRAU near Karachev, located in Bryansk Oblast, approximately 114 km from the Ukrainian border, was attacked by Ukrainian drones. Fires, explosions and continuous detonations for hours resulted, but initial battle damage assessment has not yet been made by independent military analysts. Two ammunition storage warehouses were destroyed.
On 20 November 2024 the 13th Arsenal located at Kotovo, Novgorod Oblast was attacked by Ukrainian drones and Kotovo residents were evacuated to nearby Okulovka as a precaution.
On 22nd April 2025, the 51st arsenal located at Barsovo, Vladimir Oblast suffered an explosion followed by fires and 450 residents were evacuated from nearby towns.