A New Missile For Ukraine

The U.S. has provided a small number of new, longer range artillery missiles (called ATACMS missiles) to Ukraine which it has used on a Russian helicopter base in a recent strike. The new missiles are launched from launchers that they already have as part of the HIMARs multiple rocket launcher system (MLRS), but with one missile with a 100 mile range per magazine, instead of the usual six missiles with a 24 mile range.

The shorter range, more abundant and cheaper 24 mile range artillery missiles were especially useful for striking cannon artillery (e.g. howitzers) which have a range of less than 24 miles, from a point of safety, and striking opposing forces behind defensive lines of mine fields and trenches and anti-armor barriers. This is critical in Ukraine since the airspace there is contested with Russian jet fighters and anti-aircraft missile systems, so helicopters and fighter aircraft and bombers can't be used reliably for that purpose.

The new longer range artillery missiles are especially useful for striking field air based and troop bases that are further behind enemy lines that have not been as tightly secured with bunkers and anti-missile defenses, because Ukraine previously didn't have a way to strike these bases.

The 100 mile range of this new missile is comparable to hitting a garage sized target in Vail or Pueblo from a missile launched from Civic Center in Denver. The GPS and inertial guidance system for the missiles assure that they almost always hit their targets (unguided howitzer rounds and unguided bombs dropped by planes are far less accurate). Even longer range version of these missiles exist in the U.S. arsenal, but those were not transferred to Urkaine, presumably to maintain U.S. military superiority and to discourage Ukraine from striking so deeply into Russia that it provokes a nuclear escalation of the conflict.

The missiles provided to Ukraine, which have a cluster bomb warhead, damage everything near that target for an area similar in size to the hub of a general aviation airport that is a "soft" (i.e. unarmored) target like people, helicopters, planes, fuel tanks, exposed missiles and ammunition stores, and radar systems that aren't inside buildings with bullet proof walls.

The new missiles cost about $1.5 million each, adjusted for inflation to current U.S. dollars since they were originally purchased.

The U.S. is in the process of replacing ATACMS missiles with new "precision strike" missiles with a 300-400 mile range that can be delivered in two missile magazines that can be used in the lighter HIMARs launchers, or the heavier M2 Bradly Infantry Fighting Vehicle derived M270 MLRS system. These missiles are only legally possible for the U.S. to develop and deploy recently as they were previously banned by a now abrogated treaty which prohibited the use of intermediate range ballistic missiles.

From the U.S. perspective, providing a small number of ATACMS missiles to Ukraine serves multiple purposes. First, it helps Ukraine in its current fight somewhat stalemated fight, using resources that might otherwise have simply been discarded by the U.S. military when upgraded successor missiles were deployed. Second, Ukraine's successes in destroying Russian military equipment and killing Russian soldiers reduces the military resources that Russia has available to threaten U.S. NATO allies in Europe in any medium term future conflict. Third, Ukraine's use of the missiles provides a "sandbox" in which the missiles capabilities and problems can be tested and revealed in a real world combat situation, which makes these missiles or similar ones a more credible threat in future conflicts, and which can guide the development of their successor artillery missiles and the military doctrines for using them, by allowing the successor missile designs to address any unforeseen flaws in these designs and in the way that they are used (without putting Americans in harm's way to do so).