war in Ukraine
Ukraine’s newest weapon – what do the M30A1 missiles do for Himar’s launchers?
“Ukraine Weapons Tracker” shows the missiles in Ukraine
© Ukraine Weapons Tracker / pr
Kyiv has received new missiles for the US Himars launchers – one salvo from them destroys an area of one square kilometer.
New rockets for the Himar launchers feared by the Russians have been spotted in Ukraine. The M30A1 weapons can destroy a large area at once. The M30A1 replaced older warheads a few years ago. These broke up into small bomblets just above the ground, which then spread out, fell on the target area and destroyed a large area with their explosions.
Detachment of the cluster bombs
This type of weapon always had the disadvantage that all the small cluster bombs never exploded and the small duds still posed a danger to the civilian population years later. The M30A1, on the other hand, works like a shotgun shell. It explodes over the target. The detonation ejects nearly 200,000 tungsten balls. They can pierce so-called “soft” targets – the weapon is powerless against bunkers. The bullets cannot penetrate armor, but even with a main battle tank, the external installations would be damaged. To date, Ukraine has only used the M31 warhead, aimed at single targets. M30A1, on the other hand, has a kill radius of 85 meters or the kill zone has a diameter of 190 meters. A full salvo from one launcher then covers an area of almost a square kilometer.
Further, more precise and smarter
In principle, the Russian multiple launchers work similarly, even if they use small cluster bombs. Only they are less precise and they do not reach the enormous range of almost 90 kilometers of the US launchers. A single battery of Himars Launchers can hold down enemy troops in a large area. This is a great danger for Russia. Both warheads working together can destroy fortified positions. M31 can be used against field fortifications and M30A1’s tungsten balls against the trench system between the bunkers.
The great effect of the Himars launchers can be explained by the precision of the guided warheads, their range and better communication. At least the better equipped troops of Kiev use a decentralized fire control system, which is linked via the Starlink satellites. In a few minutes, the target data can be transmitted by an observer to the firing battery.