ANALYSIS – Ukraine has reportedly used the long-awaited U.S. ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) to strike Russian targets for the first time. Ukraine had begged Team Biden for over a year to send ATACMS, pronounced “attack-ems,” which can strike targets at ranges over 100 miles.
The highly accurate, GPS-guided missiles, also designated MGM-140s, have a longer range than any other weapons the United States has so far sent to Kyiv. Other versions not yet sent to Ukraine have ranges over 190 miles.
The ATACMS are fired from the U.S.-supplied M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) used extensively by Ukraine since last summer. (RELATED: Is Biden Finally Sending Long-Range ATACMS Missiles To Ukraine?)
As with the case of M-1 Abrams tanks, and now F-16s, Biden dithered and delayed before finally sending the much-needed weaponry. In this case, announcing he would send them in late September, but the Pentagon apparently secretly rushed their delivery.
Earlier, Team Biden feared that Ukraine might use the U.S.-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia, a move that could escalate the involvement of the United States in the war.
Vladimir Putin previously warned that sending ATACMs to Ukraine would cross a Russian red line. Critics said that by refusing to provide the weapons, Biden was drawing an arbitrary line in the type of weapons it was sending Ukraine.
Let's see if Putin was bluffing, yet again.
According to Ukraine's special operations forces, they carried out an overnight operation called “Dragonfly” in Berdyansk and the occupied Luhansk region using 18 missiles, resulting in “significant losses” on the Russian side. (RELATED: Ukraine Uses American-Supplied Long-Range Missiles For First Time)
In their Telegram message, the Ukrainians claimed that nine Russian helicopters, an anti-aircraft missile launcher, an ammunition warehouse and special equipment at airfields were destroyed.
The ATACMS version used by Ukraine to hit these targets on the Azov Sea coast and in the Luhansk was the M39 version armed with cluster bomblets rather than a single warhead, making them far more effective in hitting airfields and sitting aircraft.
Each missile has 950 anti-personnel and anti-materiel, or APAM, M74 bomblets. These submunitions are released mid-flight and dispersed over a large area.
The single warhead version, not provided to Ukraine, carries the same explosive as used in the U.S. Navy's Harpoon anti-ship missile.
Details of the strikes could not be independently verified, and Russian officials denied that the strikes on Berdyansk were successful.
However, the Russian military blogger “Fighterbomber,” who has links to the air force, posted that this was “one of the most serious strikes in all of the duration of SMO (Special Military Operation).”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles were responsible for the strikes.
“I am grateful to those who are effectively destroying the occupiers' logistics and bases on our land. There are results. I am grateful to some of our partners – the weapons are effective, as we agreed,” he said. (RELATED: Zelensky: US And EU Must Help If Ukraine Holds Wartime Elections)
Are ATACMS ‘game changers'? Well, they will allow Ukraine to strike command posts, ammunition stores and logistics routes far behind Russian front lines, as well as dug-in defenses along the front lines.
Theoretically, ATACMS could also allow Ukrainian forces to strike further targets on Russian soil, but Kyiv has pledged to use ATACMS only within Ukraine's borders.
Still, Ukrainian officials are extremely happy. “A new chapter of this war has (un)officially begun,” Podolyak wrote on X. “There are no more safe places for Russian troops within the… internationally recognized borders of #Ukraine.”
Previously, Britain broke the taboo against supplying Ukraine with long-range weapons by sending their Storm Shadow (SCALP-EG) cruise missiles with over 150-mile ranges.
As Business Insider reported:
The cluster missiles will help augment Ukraine's long-range strike capabilities. Kyiv's forces in recent months have relied heavily on Western-provided Storm Shadow, or SCALP-EG, air-launched cruise missiles to strike high-profile Russian targets around the Black Sea and the occupied Crimean peninsula. Ukraine also has the domestically developed land-attack variant of the Neptune anti-ship missile.
Experts say ATACMS will allow the Ukrainian military to hammer, among other targets, Moscow's artillery and threaten its military supply and communication lines deep behind the front lines.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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