The annual stock of shells of the Russian Federation and DPRK was destroyed: the consequences of explosions at the 51st Arsenal Grau
On Tuesday, April 22, explosions damaged the 51st arsenal of the Main Rocket-Artillery Directorate (Grau) of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation near the city of Kirzha Vladimir region, only 60 km from Moscow. It is one of the largest logistics hubs of the Russian army. According to Analytics, Defense Express, this is the fourth strategic arsenal of Grau, destroyed after the start of a series of blows in the fall of 2024. Then the 23rd, 67th and 107th arsenals were amazed.
Grau arsenals are large ammunition storage facilities, from which artillery shells will then fall into smaller warehouses. In addition, their territory works on maintenance and renewal of ammunition are performed. Therefore, strokes in the arsenals are one of the most painful logistics of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In total, there are a limited number of similar objects in the Russian Federation.
According to open sources, up to 11 arsenals of Grau can be in the area of reach of the Armed Forces. Currently, four such objects have been destroyed or damaged, that is, about a third of the entire infrastructure of this type. According to Russian open sources for 2009, the 51st arsenal could accommodate up to 105 thousand tons of ammunition. The projected capacity of this base reaches 264 thousand tons in the territory of about 3. 5 km².
It is one of the largest ammunition compositions and its destruction, given the proximity to Moscow and a powerful air defense system around the capital, is of considerable strategic importance. According to the director of the information and consulting company, Defense Express Sergey Zgurtets, it is difficult to estimate the losses of the Russian army from explosions on the arsenal, because there are no accurate satellite images.
As of the moment of impact on the warehouse, the number of ammunition could reach 240 thousand tons. It is also unknown how these ammunition was destroyed. "Over the past 10 years, the Russian army has built arsenal almost twice. Also at this enterprise, at this storage, four years ago, there were measures to improve security. And then there was a large inspection of the Ministry of Defense, which revealed abuse. However, they did not have time to improve the safety of the arsenal.
There were no percussion drones, "says focus the expert. According to Zgurt, the 51st arsenal of Grau stored a large range of weapons for Russian artillery and rocket troops. In particular, there were stored missiles for SPRs, MSRCs, ballistic missiles, as well as shells and mines. According to a military expert, the founder of BO "Reactive Mail" of Pavel Nazhny, any shells were stored in the Russian arsenal destroyed.
These are mortar mines, and shells for artillery, rockets for hail systems, Hurricane, maybe Smerch, and there were air defense missiles. The expert agrees that no one knows the exact figure of losses, it can be 100 thousand tons of shells and half a million tone. But if it turns out that 200 thousand tons of ammunition were stored there, it is about 2-2. 5 million shells, which is equal to the annual production of shells in the Russian Federation and North Korea.
"The shells will continue to explode for a few more days, and maybe even a week. Why so? Ammunition on such arsenals are stored not only in special storage facilities, but also in the open air - without proper protection.
Among them are outdated shells, rockets of cold war," According to Sergiy Zgurt, explosions near the city of Kirzhach, though inferior to the scale of explosions in a warehouse in Toropka, but this can lead to a decrease in the intensity of hostilities by the Russian army, in particular in the Pokrovsky direction, where ammunition from the 51st Arsenal is supplied.
"If after the explosions in Tropka, the Commander -in -Chief of the Armed Forces Alexander Sirsky said that the dynamics of the use of the Russian army of ammunition fell five times, then we will see similar processes at the level of the front and now, when there is a significant reduction of Russia's capabilities to use managed rows, shells. According to Pavel Nazhny, the destruction of the 51st arsenal will deepen the projectile famine in the army of the Russian Federation.
This blow also confirms the weakness of the Russian air defense system in the Russian Federation, because the warehouse is 60 km from Moscow. The expert also noted that the strokes on the largest compositions of the Russian Federation will continue to cause the greatest damage to the occupying army.