What appears to be a Russian news crew put their camera drone up in the air to capture BMD-21 Grad artillery rockets being fired in Syria. The result very well may be the closest anything has filmed artillery rockets while flying through the air in a war zone—and survived to show the results.
Grad rockets have been around since the 1960s and are still a mainstay in many militaries today. They are a brutally simplistic wide-area anti-personnel and anti-material weapon that does not discriminate who it kills.
If you are a good guy, a bad guy or an innocent bystander standing within its impact pattern without substantial cover, you are likely to have a very bad day. This is what it is like being on the receiving end of such a barrage.
You have to hand it to the Russians. They have been getting very good at capturing even their most antiquated military hardware being used in Syria in very dramatic fashion. These videos offer a lot of eye candy, but these unguided “dumb” munitions land somewhere, and often time that is far outside the vicinity of their intended targets.
Contact the author at Tyler@jalopnik.com.