Ukraine - MGM-140 ATACMS
Three informed sources told Reuters 17 November 2024 that the administration of US President Joe Biden lifted restrictions that prevented Ukraine from using weapons supplied by Washington to strike deep inside Russian territory, in a major change in US policy towards the ongoing war between the two countries since February 2022. This came as French President Emmanuel Macron said that major Russian air strikes on Ukraine on Sunday showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not seeking peace. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the United States had "given the green light to use long-range missiles." President Joe Biden thus agreed to Kiev's urgent demand before he hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump, who has been highly critical of US aid to Ukraine.
The US Department of Defense declined to comment on reports that President Joe Biden had allowed Ukraine to use US-made ATACMS missiles against targets inside Russia. "We are refraining so far from commenting on reports about allowing Ukraine to use long-range American missiles against targets inside Russia." The US State Department neither confirmed nor denied reports that Washington authorized Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles for deeper strikes inside Russia. "I'm not going to speak to or confirm any policy changes," Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman told a news conference.
According to media reports, this concerns a decision to allow the use of ATACMS, an American missile system with a maximum range of 300 kilometers. This came after a Russian military escalation in Ukraine, after Russian forces launched the most violent attack in about three months, using missiles and drones, which resulted in 10 deaths and international condemnation.
Richard Grenell, Trump's former director of national intelligence and one of his closest foreign policy advisers, criticised the decision, saying Biden was "escalating the wars before he leaves office". Grenell said on X: "No one anticipated that Joe Biden would ESCALATE the war in Ukraine during the transition period. This is as if he is launching a whole new war. Everything has changed now all previous calculations are null and void. And all for politics." David Sacks, a tech millionaire and major Trump donor, said: "President Trump won a clear mandate to end the war in Ukraine. So what does Biden do in his final two months in office? Massively escalate it. Is his goal to hand Trump the worst situation possible?"
Next U.S. NatSec advisor Michael Waltz in an interview with FOX reacted to reports about Biden lifting restrictions on ATACMS for Ukraine: "It's another step up the escalation ladder. And nobody knows where this is going. North Korea is unleashing ballistic missiles, artillery, tens of thousands of soldiers. The administration responds by lifting this restriction. North Korea sends more soldiers. South Korea is now saying it may get engaged. ... So this is a development, but it's a tactical one. President Trump is talking grand strategy here. How do we get both sides the table to end this war?"
Sir John Chipman, Executive Chairman of The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), commented "While it is better for the US to allow the use of ATACMS on Russian positions in Kursk oblast than not doing so, the strategic absurdity of drawing a boundary around an oblast as a clear line that would ex hypothesi not inspire ‘escalation’ is astounding. A reminder: to defeat an opponent one needs to possess escalation dominance; not gift it to the other side. This conflict with Moscow has been conducted within a strategically illiterate logic that would shock the founders and Cold War leaders of the NATO alliance."
Britain and France have reportedly given Ukraine the green light to strike Russian territory with Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles — but only in the Kursk region, RBC reports referring to a high-ranking source in military and political circles. But French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that Paris had not altered its position on strikes inside Russia. And the German government said that the United States had notified Berlin about Biden’s decision.
The United Nations called for ensuring the safety of civilians, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN Secretary General, said, commenting on reports about US President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use US-supplied ATACMS ballistic missiles for strikes inside Russia. "All parties must ensure the safety and protection of civilians, regardless of wherever they are," he said.
"America will be no more. There will be no Biden, no Trump," threatened Russian State Duma deputy Andrey Gurulyov, vowing to inflict "95% total damage on the U.S." in response to the use of American long-range ATACMS missiles against Russia. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "The Kiev regime’s use of long-range projectiles for attacks on our territory will mean the direct involvement of the US and its satellites in combat against Russia as well as a radical change in the conflict’s essence and nature... In this event, Russia’s response will be appropriate and tangible".
Venezuelan dictator Maduro calls Zelensky a “Nazi criminal” and criticizes the approval for strikes deep into Russia. "The governments of the US, France, and the UK – the axis of evil – have just approved the Nazi criminal Zelensky to use long-range missiles against our brotherly Russia. We are at a decisive moment. American imperialism has entered a phase of madness,” he declared.
An Institute for the Study of War (ISW) report on Aug. 27, 2024, using open-source data, identified “no fewer than 245 known Russian military and paramilitary objects” within the 300-kilometer range of U.S.-supplied ATACMS, including air bases, headquarters, and training centers. The key targets for ATACMS and Storms Shadow missiles will be ammunition depots, military equipment parking lots, personnel locations, command posts and airfields. There are several air bases in the border area that Ukraine can reach in the event of launches of modernized MGM-140B ATACMS Block 1A missiles with a range of up to 300 km . The European Storm Shadow (SCALP-EG) missiles have a similar range.
It should be noted that many of them have recently significantly reduced their activity in favor of deeper air harbors. At the same time, although with a huge delay, the construction of reinforced concrete shelters for aircraft has begun , which in the future should protect aircraft from cluster munitions. However, although some experience in countering ATACMS missiles has already been gained during the Ukrainian Armed Forces' strikes on Crimea, Donbass and new territories, they still pose an extremely serious threat, which not all air defense systems can reliably destroy, and there is a categorical lack of shelters due to the previous leadership of the Ministry of Defense ignoring this problem.
Kyiv previously provided Washington with a target list in side Russia, urging the US to lift its ban on striking Russia with its ATACMS missiles for Ukraine. However, the NYT said 30 October 2024 US officials claimed the list far exceeded the number of missiles available without risking stockpiles needed for potential conflicts in the Middle East and Asia. Four US officials told The New York Times that Zelenskyy was shocked by Biden’s refusal to authorize using US long-range missiles during their September 2024 meeting, as Biden had previously relented on weapons like Abrams tanks, F-16s, and ATACMS. Despite detailed explanations and target lists, no political decision had been made.
Ukrainian forces targeted a Russian radar station using long-range missiles provided by the US. The Ukrainian military said on 03 October 2024 that it used U.S. 'Army Tactical Missile System', or ATACMS, ballistic missiles to strike a Russian 'Nebo-M' radar station. The Nebo-M radar is a system that can detect 5th generation aircraft like the F-22 and F-35 as well as long-range ballistic missile launches.
Ukraine's military says it believes Russia had 10 such operational systems left. The military did not state any details of the strike, including when it had taken place, but said that the destruction of the Nebo-M radar creates a favorable "air corridor" for the effective use of missile weapons.
The long-range ATACMS missiles Ukraine used were sent by the United States in the spring when Ukraine, at the time, had committed to only using the weapons inside its own territory, which is also the case with the British Storm Shadow. In the past months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been urging Western allies to let Ukraine fire their supplied long-range missiles deep into Russia. Washington has not suggested any change in its position of not lifting restrictions.
Max Boot noted 28 August 2023 the Biden administration still won’t provide ATACMS, citing fear of provoking Putin and claiming that there are too few in the US arsenal. In fact, the US Army has as many as 3,000 ATACMS; sending a few hundred to Ukraine won’t deplete U.S. defenses. “This is BS,” tweeted retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. Army Europe. “If we don’t have enough, why haven’t we increased production? This is about a shortage of political will, not a shortage of ATACMS.”
Washington made it “clear” that it cannot provide Kiev with any significant number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) in the foreseeable future, CNN reported on 31 August 2024, citing an unnamed US official. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov met with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon this week to discuss additional military aid. During the meeting he reportedly presented him with a list of “high-value” targets that Kiev would like to strike, deep inside Russia, using American-made weapons.
In an interview with CNN after the meeting, Umerov claimed that Ukraine was pushing to lift the ATACMS restrictions for “self-defense,” arguing that “the airfields being used to hit our cities are within the range of deep strikes.” However, a US defense official told the channel that many of the targets on Ukraine’s wish list are in fact outside the missile’s range, as Moscow has relocated its high-value assets away from the front.
The US has also “made it clear that Kiev should not expect another significant delivery of ATACMS due to the finite number in US inventories and the long production time of the weapon,” CNN wrote, citing the source. The official noted that Ukraine has so far received a very “limited” supply of these missiles. The US government seemingly drew the line on deep strikes into Russia after one of its ATACMS rockets, armed with a cluster warhead, struck a Crimean beach in early June. Moscow accused Washington of enabling that and other acts of “terrorism” against civilians, and suggested it might arm “states and entities” around the world that are hostile to the US in response.
Pentagon spokesman Major General Patrick Ryder clarified on 27 August 2024 that Washington’s “policy has not changed,” meaning that Ukraine was allowed to use US-supplied weapons to defend against cross-border attacks but not for “deep strikes” into what the US recognizes as Russian territory. However, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that Washington “will keep the conversations with the Ukrainians going.”
Moscow has warned that any talk of using long-range missiles to strike Russian territory was highly dangerous. “This is blackmail, it is an attempt to create an impression that the West wants to avoid excessive escalation, but in fact this is a ruse,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference on 27 August 2024. “The West does not want to avoid escalation. The West is asking for trouble, to put it bluntly. I reckon that this is already obvious to everyone.”
Kiev had been requesting these missiles for seversl years, but the US has thus far held off for fear of instigating a wider conflict with Russia. The ATACMS’ range would allow Ukrainian forces to strike targets deeper behind Russia’s borders, including in Crimea. For this reason, the US has turned down Ukrainian requests for the missiles since last year, with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan telling reporters last July that “while a key goal of the United States is to… support and defend Ukraine, another key goal is to ensure that we do not end up in a circumstance where we are heading down the road towards a third world war.”
Utilized by American forces in the Gulf and Iraq Wars, the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System has a range of up to 300 kilometers (190 miles) and can be fired from the M270 MLRS and M142 HIMARS platforms, which the US and UK had already sent to Ukraine.
White House and Pentagon officials also claimed that the US had too few of the missiles in its stockpiles to spare. However, both officials told ABC News that “the US has found it has more ATACMS in its inventory than originally assessed,” in the network’s words. ABC described this discovery as "surprising." While the quantity and condition of these missiles was unclear, the White House has also reportedly accepted their use to target Crimea. "I think specific targets in Crimea would be command and control, logistics hubs – especially ammunition facilities – and air bases," former CIA officer and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Mick Mulroy told ABC.
A Pentagon official said no decision has been made to supply Ukraine with long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) following reports that claimed the weapons were likely to be sent in the coming months. "While I’ve seen that report, no decision has been made yet on whether to provide Ukraine with ATACMS," the official said.
Zelenskyi's call to expand the use of long-range weapons was heard after the massive shelling of almost the entire territory of Ukraine in the morning of August 26. The president emphasized that Ukraine needs additional air defense systems, as well as the removal of long-range restrictions, in order to protect the lives of Ukrainians. He emphasized that such restrictions should not exist when Russia does not have similar restrictions.
"Putin remains true to himself – it is a sick creature; this has long been clear to everyone. But it is also clear that he can only do what the world allows him to do. Weaknesses and lack of decisions in response feed terror. And every leader, every partner of ours knows what strong decisions are needed to end this war – and to end it justly. There should be no restrictions on the range of weapons for Ukraine, while terrorists have no such restrictions. Defenders of life should face no restrictions on weapons, while Russia uses all kinds of its own weapons, as well as “Shahed” drones and ballistic missiles from North Korea. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, and other partners have the power to help us stop terror. We need decisions. Glory to Ukraine!"
Commenting on President Volodymyr Zelenskyi's call to lift restrictions on long-range strikes against Russia, Kirby said that there are currently no changes in these principles. "This is not a new desire of President Zelenskyi. He has expressed his concerns both privately and publicly. We understand why he is doing this - his country is under attack. But, as I have said many times, we will continue our talks with the Ukrainians, but they will remain private ", he added.
The United States does not plan to lift restrictions on the use of American weapons by Ukrainian armed forces to strike Russian territory, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said 27 August 2024. "Our policy does not change. Ukraine can use U.S. military assistance to defend itself against cross-border attacks and to respond. However, when it comes to long-range strikes, deep strikes into Russia, our policy remains the same," Ryder told reporters. The statement followed calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the West to lift these restrictions. Earlier, Politico reported that Kiev was planning to present to Washington a list of targets in Russia for long-range strikes. It was specified that the Ukrainian authorities insist on the importance of some targets and the possibility of hitting them with American missiles.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
