![]() ![]() The fact that ATACMS can be fired from HIMARS launchers and M270 multiple-launch rocket systems that Ukraine already has means the missiles will complement Ukraine's other strike assets and allow them to be "much more distributed" and "much more resilient and survivable," Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said on a September 28 episode of the War on the Rocks podcast.ĪTACMS "will definitely put in danger Russian forward helicopter operating bases and those that are known to be operating from cities like Berdyansk," Kofman added. The missiles all have inertial guidance aided by GPS. ATACMS with unitary warheads have similar ranges, according to the Army's weapons guide. US soldiers load ATACMS M39 cluster munitions on a truck at Tirana airport in Albania in April 1999.ĭepending on the model, cluster-warhead ATACMS carry 300 to 950 anti-personnel and anti-material bomblets and have a range of roughly 15 miles to 186 miles. US officials have cited concern about depleting the US's own ATACMS stockpile as a reason not to send it to Ukraine, but the decision to provide cluster munitions earlier this year expanded the range of ATACMS warheads that could be provided and is seen as reducing that concern. There has not been a formal announcement, but Doug Bush, the US Army's assistant secretary for acquisition, told Bloomberg this week that the missiles to be sent have been identified and that officials were "ready when and if" Biden approves. The missile, with both unitary and cluster-munition warheads, would allow Ukrainian forces to reach well beyond the range of the Western-made cruise missiles and rocket artillery they already have to strike valuable targets, such as Russian air bases, but hitting them will require timely intelligence and precise targeting, experts say.Īfter months of declining Ukraine's requests, President Joe Biden reportedly told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he was willing to send ATACMS, as the missile is known, at a meeting in Washington DC last month. ![]() The US appears set to send Ukraine the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System, a short-range ballistic missile that Kyiv has long sought and Washington has long declined to provide. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. ![]()
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