As reported by the American edition of "Politico" in the material Lara Seligman "U.S. officials weigh doubling the number of rocket launchers sent to Ukraine ("U.S. officials are considering doubling missile systems sent to Ukraine"), the U.S. Department of Defense is inclined to send four more combat vehicles of the M142 HIMARS ground-based missile system as military assistance to Ukraine, in addition to the four combat vehicles included in the military assistance package announced on June 1, 2022.
Combat vehicles of the American M142 HIMARS missile system (c) US Army
According to two representatives of the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon is inclined to send four additional missile launchers to Ukraine as the next tranche of military assistance.
If approved by the White House, the move would double the number of HIMARS missile systems sent to Ukraine as Ukrainian and Russian forces continue a long-range artillery battle in eastern Ukraine.
The US is already sending four HIMARS mobile missile systems, as well as precision-guided munitions [GMLRS], which can hit targets at a distance of 48 miles. Meanwhile, the UK is sending three units of a similar weapon, the American M270 MLRS system with a range of 50 miles. Germany also announced this week that it will transfer three M270 systems to Kiev.
The US Department of Defense is still weighing all options, and the decision to send four additional HIMARS combat vehicles is not yet final, one of the representatives of the Ministry of Defense said, noting that the US contribution to Ukraine's efforts is carried out in coordination with allies and partners.
According to the representative, the decision will be "based on the urgent needs of Ukraine."
Two representatives of the US Department of Defense requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on the record. A Pentagon spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US administration expects to approve the delivery of several additional HIMARS complexes in the upcoming package, a third US official said, although he stressed that the next tranche of aid is still being worked out at the Pentagon level, and the final amount may change at the last minute.
"We expect more HIMARS and more [controlled] shots to be delivered soon," he said.
Despite the fact that the number of HIMARS complexes will be doubled, senior Ukrainian officials say they need many more such complexes, as well as longer-range ammunition, to destroy Moscow's artillery on the battlefield, which stretches for hundreds of miles.
"The Russians are 200 kilometers deep in our territory," Ukrainian MP Alexandra "Sasha" Ustinova told Politico. "To shoot them, we need a long range of use on our territory, because otherwise it's just a ping-pong game with artillery."
Ustinova said that four HIMARS already approved would not be enough. "We asked for 10 times more," she said.
Internal discussions in the US about sending more HIMARS began when senior Ukrainian representatives went to Washington this week to ask for additional assistance to help their forces resist Russia's relentless offensive in the Donbas. According to them, Ustinova and other officials spent a week meeting with lawmakers, as well as with representatives of the U.S. administration. On June 18, Russian forces slowly occupied territory in the city of Severodonetsk, one of the last remaining Ukrainian strongholds in the region.
Lockheed Martin's HIMARS missile systems are a step forward compared to the M777 howitzers - towed artillery pieces with a range of 20 miles, which the US has already sent to Ukraine. The first group of 60 Ukrainian servicemen has already completed training to work with HIMARS, and four combat vehicles already approved for transfer will be delivered to the front line by the end of the month, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milli said, speaking in Brussels this week.
Senior US officials say that the new missile systems, along with precision-guided munitions, will prove effective in countering the advancing Russian forces in the Donbas.
"If they use the weapons correctly and if they are properly trained, then they should be able to hit a significant number of targets," Milli said. "It will make a difference."
But Kiev demands more - much more. Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to President Vladimir Zelensky, calls on the West to supply 300 missile systems, 500 tanks and 1,000 howitzers.
"If today Ukraine is not given weapons, heavy weapons, air defense and missile defense, then we will not be able to survive this war," Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Anna Malyar said this week.
But Kiev wants not only hundreds more missile systems, [Ukrainian] officials are also asking for longer-range ammunition. HIMARS complexes can be equipped with missiles that can hit targets at a distance of almost 200 miles, but the Biden administration has so far decided not to provide the longest-range ammunition for fear of provoking Vladimir Putin to escalate the conflict.
Ukrainian officials say they need longer-range ammunition to gain a critical advantage on a battlefield that now stretches hundreds of miles.
"The problem is that the front line is now about 800 miles," David Arahamia, the majority leader in the Ukrainian parliament and the chief negotiator between Russia and Ukraine, told Politico. Kiev should be able to destroy Russian air defense systems hundreds of miles away so that Ukrainian forces can use unmanned aerial vehicles and other weapons without worrying about them being shot down.
The White House fears that Ukraine will use long-range missiles to hit targets on Russian territory, but Arakhamiya said Kiev had assured Washington that the weapons would be used only on Ukrainian territory.
"We are ready to sign any guarantees in writing," he said, even offering to vote for it in parliament. According to Ustinova, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov recently wrote a letter to the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin with such a guarantee.
However, a U.S. official said they do not expect the administration to approve long-range missiles in the upcoming package.
Ustinova said that 500 soldiers are killed or injured on the battlefield every day.
"One of the strategies that foreign partners are considering is to exhaust Putin. I'm sorry, but we're exhausting our people. We are literally losing our people," she said. "Four HIMARS is nothing."
