The weapons allowed Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russian-occupied territory.
Share on linkedin The launch of an Army Tactical Missile during a U.S. and South Korea joint drill on the east coast of South Korea in July 2017. Photo: South Korean Defense Ministry via Getty Images
The U.S. quietly shipped a new long-range missile system to Ukraine, which used it to bomb airfields in Russian-occupied territory, according to a Pentagon spokesperson.The transfer of the Army Tactical Missile System marked a major policy shift within the Biden administration, which has so far been wary of giving Ukraine long-ranged missiles over concerns about escalation.
At the same time, Kyiv had repeatedly asked the U.S. and other Western countries for long-ranged capabilities to strike Russian targets in occupied Ukrainian territory.Ukraine has so far used the long-ranged ATACMS twice, once against a military base in Crimea and another time against Russian forces east of Berdyansk near the Sea of Azov, according to thePentagon spokesman Maj. Charlie Dietz said the U.S.
"We have new ATACMS coming off the production line and being transferred into military stocks, and, as a result, we were able to move forward with this provision of ATACMS while also maintaining the current readiness of our armed forces," Dietz said.The U.S. gave Ukraine a shorter-ranged cluster bomb variant of ATACMS, which was first used in October 2023 to target Russian airfields near Berdyansk and Luhansk, two cities in eastern Ukraine occupied by Russian forces.
This makes ATACMS effective for both stationary and halted mobile targets, like aircraft parked on a tarmac, trucks offloading supplies, artillery guns or air defense systems.It isn't exactly clear how many ATACMS the U.S. has, but Lockheed said in 2018 it had produced more than 3,850 and over 600 had been launched in combat.Share on twitter
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