WSJ claims that the US deliberately reduced the firing range of Ukrainian HIMARS According to The Wall Street Journal, the United States has finalized the M142 HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems transferred to Ukraine so that the Ukrainian side could not use them to hit targets deep in Russia.
How plausible the information of the American edition is, the military observer of the Newspaper understood.En" Mikhail Khodarenok.
The United States has made constructive changes to the M142 HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, which were sent to Ukraine so that Kiev could not use them to destroy objects on the territory of Russia. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal.
According to the American officials referred to by the publication,
"The administration of US President Joe Biden believes that this precautionary measure is necessary to reduce the risk of a wider war with Moscow," the authors of the article note.
The changes reportedly affected the hardware and software of combat vehicles. Having refused to supply Ukraine with ballistic missiles of the ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) type, the United States thus excluded the possibility of using M142 HIMARS combat vehicles to launch these missiles if Ukraine buys them from other countries.
The Pentagon declined to comment on this.
However, there are still great doubts about the reliability of such considerations expressed by the authoritative publication The Wall Street Journal. Nowadays, of course, nothing can be excluded, but the thing is that guided missiles to the M142 GMLRS (Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System) of 227 mm caliber were delivered to Ukraine in versions M30 and M31 with a firing range from 15 to 84 km. With such a radius of action, the Ukrainian M142 could in no way constitute any serious threat to military facilities on the territory of Russia and even within the borders of the Ukrainian SSR in 1991. MGM-140A ATACMS missiles with a firing range from 165 to 300 km were not delivered to Ukraine.
Now about the possibilities of Ukraine to purchase ATACMS missiles from other countries. And here, first of all, the Baltic countries, Poland and Romania come to mind, which have either already purchased, or intend to purchase M142 HIMARS in the near future. However, so far there is no evidence that ATACMS missiles were supplied to these States (with the exception of Romania, which has 54 products of this type).
Turkey, the UAE, the Republic of Korea, and Greece also have ATACMS missiles. However, it seems very unlikely that any of these countries would risk transferring such weapons to Ukraine. Firstly, according to the relevant contractual obligations to the United States, it is strictly prohibited to transfer American weapons to any third countries. In this case, the seller will have much more troubles than benefits. Secondly, Kiev currently has no money to buy expensive weapons (even if someone decided to sell the ATACMS APU, there would be frankly nothing to pay Ukraine's bills with).
The Wall Street Journal notes that since June of this year, the United States has delivered 20 M142 HIMARS combat vehicles to Ukraine. Earlier it was reported that the Pentagon refused to supply Ukraine with more M142 HIMARS due to limited industrial capacity. And it also looks very unconvincing. The fact is that the American industry has produced 540 M142 combat vehicles. Thus, less than 4% of the manufactured HIMARS were sent to Ukraine (from the presence of the US armed forces). And this could not affect any production opportunities in America in any way.
The M142 combat vehicles proved to be a very effective weapon during the battles and operations in Ukraine. And if the Pentagon had transferred them to Ukraine not 20 units, but at least 50, then this would have had a very significant impact on the course of the armed struggle even without ATACMS missiles.
According to the WSJ, the structural changes made to the M142 "reflect the concerns of administration representatives that their Ukrainian partner may stop fulfilling its promise not to strike Russia with weapons provided by the United States," as well as the desire of the administration of President Joe Biden to "reduce the risk of a wider war" with Russia.
However, the concerns of the American administration related to the possible combat use of M142 HIMARS on objects in Russia, against the background of today's strikes by the armed forces of Ukraine on long-range aviation airfields in Engels and Diaghilev (Ryazan region) already seem somewhat exaggerated. Meanwhile, Kiev did not stop at the two airfields mentioned above and today the third airbase of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Armed Forces was attacked - in Kursk.
Mikhail Khodarenok
