Astra Linux is a Russian Linux-based computer operating system (OS) that is being massively implemented in contemporary Russian Federation in order to replace Microsoft Windows. Initially it was created and developed to meet the needs of the Russian army, other armed forces and intelligence agencies. It provides data protection up to the level of "top secret" in Russian classified information grade by featuring mandatory access control. It has been officially certified by Russian Defense Ministry, Federal Service for Technical and Export Control and

Federal Security Service.
In the course of 2010s, as Russian authorities and industry were trying to lower dependence on Western products ("import substitution industrialization"), Astra Linux became widely used by Russian civilians as an universal operating system for personal computers. Aside from army and police, it is now being supplied to educational, healthcare and other state institutions, as well as in industry giants such as RZD, Gazprom, Rosatom and others. Server versions of Astra Linux are certified to work with Huawei equipment.

Specifications
The creator of the OS is the Scientific/Manufacturing Enterprise Rusbitech which is applying solutions according to Russian Government decree No.2299-? of 17/10/2010 that orders federal authorities and budget institutions to implement Free Software use.

The OS releases are named after Hero Cities in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). There is one release for general purpose code named Oryol aimed at "achieving small and mid-business goals". Other releases are marked "special purpose" – the Smolensk for x86-64 PCs, Tula for networking hardware, Novorossiysk for ARM mobile devices and Murmansk for IBM System Z mainframe computers.

Rusbitech also manufactures a "soft/hardware trusted boot control module" MAKSIM-M1 ("?643?1") with PCI bus. It prevents unauthorized access and offers some other raised digital security features. The module, besides Astra Linux, also supports OSes with Linux kernel 2.6.x up to 5.x.x, as well as several Microsoft Windows OSes.