According to the American broadcaster NBC, US President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky during talks in Washington that the United States would provide Ukraine with a small number of ATACMS tactical missiles to help in the war with Russia. This was reported to NBC on September 22, 2023 on condition of anonymity by three American officials and a representative of the US Congress familiar with the negotiations. At the same time, they did not say when these missiles will be delivered to Ukraine and when a public announcement about it will be made.
Launch of the US Lockheed Martin ATACMS tactical missile from the M270 MLRS Multiple Rocket launcher combat vehicle of the US Army (c) US Army
For months, Ukraine has been asking the United States to provide it with ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles that will give Kiev the ability to hit targets up to 180 miles (300 km) away, hitting supply lines, railways and command posts behind the Russian front line.
Representatives of the US Department of Defense stated that the US does not have large stocks of surplus ATACMS missiles to provide to Ukraine. In addition, some in Washington are resisting the supply of these missiles, colloquially known as "attack "ems", out of fear that it could provoke a war with Russia.
A representative of the US Congress said that there is still a debate about which version of the missile will be transferred and how many missiles will be delivered to Ukraine.
In turn, The Washington Post newspaper, in a material devoted to the same topic by Karen DeYoung, John Hudson, "U.S. will send Ukraine long-range missiles, after delay" ("The United States will deliver long-range missiles to Ukraine after delays") reports that after almost a year of refusals to Kiev in its requests, the administration Biden intends to provide Ukraine with operational and tactical ATACMS missiles in a variant with a cluster warhead that will allow strikes deep into the territory controlled by Russia.
According to several people familiar with the discussions, the Biden administration is close to announcing that it will provide Ukraine with a variant of the ATACMS tactical missile equipped with cluster warheads, rather than a monoblock warhead.
Interdepartmental discussions on whether to approve the supply of these weapons to Ukraine have moved in recent days from the committee of deputy heads of national security agencies to the committee directly of the heads of these departments, sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity on this sensitive issue. The culmination of the process is the decision-making by President Biden.
The ATACMS missile with a cluster warhead with a range of up to 190 miles, depending on the selected version, can allow Ukraine to strike command posts, ammunition depots and logistics routes far behind the front line and defensive lines of Russia. Ukraine, with the support of a number of American legislators, has been asking for the supply of ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles to it since last year.
In the summer, Biden moved from a firm and long-standing "no" to statements that the issue "is on the table." Although the administration has abandoned initial fears that Kiev would use long-range weapons to launch strikes on Russian territory, the Pentagon remains concerned that the transfer of ATACMS missiles from relatively small military stocks on a scale capable of changing the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine will undermine the combat readiness of the US armed forces in other potential conflicts.
Ukraine has requested hundreds of missiles.
But ATACMS variants with cluster warheads are more numerous than versions with a monoblock ("unitary") warhead, and they are no longer considered a priority weapon for the United States. According to the publication of the US Department of Defense for fiscal year 2018, of the estimated initial production of missiles with cluster warheads of 2,500 units, some of which were produced in the early 1990s, an unknown number were later re-equipped with monoblock warheads. But a large number of cluster variants of missiles remain in warehouses. The consideration of the possibility of transferring ATACMS with cluster warheads to Ukraine was first reported by Reuters.
Biden informed the incoming President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky about plans to transfer ATACMS missiles during their meeting at the White House on the afternoon of September 21, 2023. Earlier in the day, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that Biden "constantly discussed" with the US military, allies and Ukraine "what is needed on the battlefield at any stage of the war, as well as what the United States can provide, while ensuring that we can meet our own needs." in deterrence and defense."
The Pentagon refused to provide data on the number of ATACMS missiles with monoblock warheads in the US arsenal. Starting from the end of this year, ATACMS missiles will be gradually replaced by a new long-range system [PrSM]. Lockheed Martin has contracts for the production of 500 ATACMS per year intended for sale abroad.
Simultaneously with the meeting with Zelensky, the US administration announced on September 21 that it would allocate additional weapons to Ukraine in the amount of $ 325 million from the US Department of Defense reserves, including "additional ammunition for air defense systems that will help strengthen Ukraine's air defense against air attacks from Russia now and in the coming winter, when Russia is likely to resume attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure," US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said.
The military assistance package "also includes artillery ammunition and anti-tank weapons, as well as cluster munitions, which will further enhance Ukraine's ability to continue the counteroffensive against Russian forces," the statement said. The initial plans to include ATACMS in cassette gear in this list were changed a few days ago, in part to allow Biden to have a preliminary discussion about this with Zelensky.
In July, the US administration announced that it would begin supplying 155 mm cluster artillery ammunition to replenish Ukraine's reserves until it was possible to replenish its dwindling stocks of non-cluster artillery shells.
The statement drew immediate criticism from human rights groups and some Governments. Cluster munitions, banned in more than 120 countries, explode in the air above a target, throwing up to hundreds of small bombs over a vast area. Critics of these weapons note that some submunitions do not explode, which puts civilians at risk, often years after the end of the conflict.
The Pentagon said at the time that cluster artillery shells sent to Ukraine had a failure rate of 2.35%, compared with 6% or higher in previous tests. Since the Ukrainian armed forces began using these cluster artillery shells this summer, U.S. officials have hailed the decision as a success, saying that these munitions have become an effective tool in a major Ukrainian counteroffensive to oust Russian troops.
The initial decision of the US Department of Defense to convert part of the cluster ATACMS into missiles with a monoblock warhead was aimed at meeting the requirement established in 2008 to achieve a failure rate of 1% by 2019. Under the Trump administration, this policy was maintained only for new-made ammunition, but this bar was eliminated for updating cash ammunition or for decommissioned ones.
According to the US Army publication 2022, various variants of ATACMS cluster warheads contain from 300 to 950 individual submunitions. It remains unclear whether the aging cluster versions of these missiles remaining in U.S. warehouses have been subjected to the same new tests for the level of non-explosions as 155-mm artillery shells.
In the spring, Britain and France provided Ukraine with cruise missiles with a range of about 140 miles - almost three times more than was previously available to Ukraine, but about 50 miles less than the range of the ATACMS.
Colin Kahl, who until the beginning of July held the position of US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Political Affairs, later that month said at a forum of analytical centers that the supply of cluster artillery shells to Ukraine reduced its need for ATACMS. Ukraine's biggest problem, he said, is "not a hundred kilometers away, but a kilometer in front of them with minefields," which the Russians laid along with rows of trenches and tank traps in defensive formations along the 600-mile front line.
The minefields proved to be a serious obstacle to Ukraine's advance, especially in the southeast, where Kiev forces hoped to break through Russian defenses and cut supply lines.
Against the backdrop of the slow progress of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and French SCALPS allowed Ukraine to attack targets that it could not reach on the ground. U.S. officials have said that long-range weapons capabilities are not a "silver bullet" for solving Ukraine's problems, even though they recognize their usefulness.
However, a senior French official said this week that his country no longer has any SCALP missiles that could be sent to Ukraine without reducing its own military readiness, and it is unclear how many more Storm Shadow missiles the UK plans to provide to Ukraine.
bmpd comment. Thus, apparently, now we are talking about the transfer to Ukraine of MGM-140B (M39A1) ATACMS Block IA missiles with an inertial satellite guidance system, an officially declared range of up to 300 km (possibly actually more) and a warhead carrying 275 or 300 M74 ARAM fragmentation submunitions (weight 0.59 kg, diameter 60 mm). Missiles of this modification were manufactured for the US Army from 1997 to 2003, it is assumed that about 500 units out of 610 delivered remain in warehouses now.
