Apr 30, 2024
- The US has supplied long-range ATACMS to Ukraine, a powerful weapon that can hit high-value targets.
- Ukraine has used the weapons to strike Russia’s prized S-400 air defense launchers in Crimea.
- One analyst said they have the potential to render Crimea “militarily worthless.”
Long-range ATACMS provided by the US to Ukraine have the potential to make Crimea “militarily worthless” to Russia, according to one military analyst.
Last week, The New York Times reported that the US had secretly shipped about 100 Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, to Ukraine, which has reportedly already put them to use.
The US has previously sent ATACMS with a shorter range, which aided Ukraine’s fight last fall. But the versions sent recently can travel about 190 miles — which puts higher-value targets in Ukraine’s crosshairs.
This includes Crimea, occupied by Russia in 2014 and crucial to its military strategy in Ukraine.
Philip Karber, a military analyst with expertise on Ukraine, told Radio Free Europe that “the delivery of ATACMS is a big breakthrough.”
He said the weapons “could basically make Crimea militarily worthless.”
Crimea has been heavily fortified since President Vladimir Putin’s forces occupied it, and it serves his military by both land and sea. It’s home to the advanced port of Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
It also serves as a crucial logistics hub and military supply route to occupied southern Ukraine, and has been the launchpad for a series of devastating Russian missile and drone attacks.
Ukraine has landed many blows on Crimea before — vastly weakening Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the port of Sevastopol, and periodically targeting the strategic Kerch Bridge that connects the peninsula to Russia.
These have been variously conducted by weapons including air and naval drones, and likely the UK- and France-supplied Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles.
But ATACMS have a key advantage over Storm Shadows, Radio Free Europe reported, in that they travel much faster.
In mid-April, Ukraine claimed to have struck the Dzhankoi military base, in northern Crimea, including a prized S-400 air defense launcher, without elaborating on the weapon used. A senior US official later told the Times that it was among Ukraine’s ATACMS targets.
Last month, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Congress to agree on an aid package for Ukraine, he pointed to ATACMS as a key weapon for targeting Crimean airfields.
“When Russia knows we can destroy these jets, they will not attack from Crimea,” Zelenskyy told The Washington Post.
“It’s like with the sea fleet,” he added. “We pushed them from our territorial waters. Now we will push them from the airports in Crimea.”
A friend in Simferopol told me the night before that the city was shaking from the recent ATACMS attack, which targeted military installations outside the city. It drove a real message home to the ruskies and pro-ruskies there that the Ukrainians haven’t forgotten whose peninsula it is. It was a pleasant reminder to the Ukrainians still living there.
Simferopol, Crimea’s capital city, rarely gets to notice any attacks. Now, ATACMS are here.
100? The US has many thousands. Ukraine will need many thousands to deliver knock out blows to the enemy.
I think that this is only the first batch, Scradge. Ukraine needs many other items, so it’s impossible to send everything at once. Even our logistic system is not able to transport an unlimited amount of gear.
Through mismanagement and failure to prioritise objectives, Ukraine has a chronic shortage of troops.
While it rebuilds, it could perhaps make up for this by having a an actual surfeit of something for once. Such as artillery, ammo and of course top quality long range fires.
In light of putler’s latest murders in Odesa, Biden should permit Ukraine to hit inside putlerstan hard. Including civilian targets.
PutinaZi fans need to feel at least some of Ukraine’s pain.
Correction: a LOT.
A lot more could be done to alleviate the country’s many problems, and this by everyone and quickly. But, sometimes it seems as if this war is on another planet in which time is not of the essence.
As usual there is no sense of urgency at all from the allies.
The putinaZis have declared their intention to a) make Kharkiv uninhabitable and b) occupy it in this year’s summer offensive.
The pundits say that this is impossible.
I’d say it’s only too possible; given time.
The fighting would be horrific beyond belief and Ukrainian civilian and military casualties would be terrible.
That is why the allies must at long last wake from slumber and declare some red lines.
The rat nazi should be informed that any attempt to turn another city into Mariupol will be met with devastating force.
I’m afraid the only way for this collection of clowns to wake up is if they experience explosions in their own cities, which is why I often wish for this to happen.