The one silver bullet that can end the war does not exist. No battle tank, no howitzer, none of the systems that Western partners have so far made available to Ukraine can alone help the attacked country win. But each of these weapons opens up new opportunities for Kiev to effectively resist Army Tactical Missile System even better than others. Through ATACMSMissiles give Kiev military capabilities that will cause major problems for the Russian armed forces. Ukraine has been demanding this weapon for a long time, and now the US government has decided to supply at least a small number. However, official confirmation from Washington is still pending. On Monday, however, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the first US main battle tanks were of the type Abrams located in Ukraine.
ATACMS are ground-based short-range ballistic missiles, depending on the type, with a range of 165 to 300 kilometers. This means that any location in the occupied territories of Ukraine can be shelled with an accuracy of just a few meters. For comparison: the precision-guided surface-to-surface missiles that Kiev currently has only fly 80 kilometers. The Storm Shadow-Cruise missiles from Great Britain and the identical ones Scalp from France, which are already being used by Ukraine, reach a similar extent ATACMSbut their number is also limited – and their method of use is very different from that of the new weapons.
“They are incredibly deadly,” says US General Petraeus
The USA has six different ones ATACMS-variants developed. The Ukraine will probably receive older ones initially ATACMS, rockets from the 1990s and later modernized. They are equipped with hundreds of bomblets, a submunition that disperses in the air. This type of rocket does not have a particularly high penetrating power against hard targets, but it does cause a lot of area damage. The ATACMS can be used against enemy troops as well as against electronic warfare systems. Their use in Iraq has shown that they can combat radar systems as well as air defense systems that are valuable for military purposes with great effectiveness. David Petraeus, the then commander of the 101st US Airborne Division in Iraq and later a four-star general, reported on the ATACMS-Deployed in Iraq in 2003: “They are incredibly deadly and have been absolutely devastating against the targets we have used them on.”
While Stream Shadows to be fired from aircraft ATACMS from MLRS– or Himars-Multiple rocket launchers. Ukraine already has both vehicles. They are mobile and can be moved quickly after a rocket has been fired. So far, Russia has not managed to destroy a single one of these rocket launchers.
Particularly suitable for destroying important moving targets
The biggest advantage of the ATACMS opposite Storm Shadows is the short amount of time it takes to hit the target. At Storm Shadows It can take two hours from the decision to attack a particular point to the impact, writes British-Canadian military analyst Colby Badhwar on X (formerly Twitter). The route of the cruise missile must be planned, and the aircraft that fires it must first get into the air and into a position close to the front in order to achieve the best range. Storm Shadows also do not reach the speed of sound.
The vehicles that ATACMS On the other hand, they are often already close to the front. They can shoot once they receive the target coordinates. The rockets reach three times the speed of sound, around 3,700 kilometers per hour, meaning they can reach their target within a few minutes and are difficult to shoot down by enemy air defenses.
For attacks on potentially moving targets ATACMS therefore very suitable. These include mobile, ground-based anti-aircraft systems, mobile command centers, enemy units that are busy loading material, electronic warfare systems, mobile artillery systems or even helicopters at an airport. No other ammunition combats such extremely valuable military targets more effectively at long distances. Without ATAMCS It is difficult for Ukraine to achieve such goals.
And there are a large number of these targets in occupied Crimea in particular. Ukraine was able to take some with them Storm Shadows destroy. It has just severely damaged the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the port city of Sevastopol; according to Ukrainian information, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Viktor Sokolov, was killed. With ATACMS Kiev’s armed forces could significantly increase the intensity of such attacks on the strategically important Crimea. Before the US promised delivery, General Ben Hodges, the former commander of the US Army in Europe, even claimed that through the ATACMS Crimea would become “untenable” for Russia.
Modern ones are the main ones against hard targets ATACMS-Large warhead variants useful. But Ukraine is unlikely to get these missiles yet, so it will probably stay put Storm Shadows reliant. However, the German cruise missiles are even better than the British rockets Taurus against such goals. This could, with some probability, even destroy the important Crimean bridge that connects the peninsula with the Russian mainland. After ATACMSThe USA’s commitment is now increasing pressure on the German government, Taurus to deliver.