“It burned for 4 hours”… ATACMS, secretly supported by the U.S., attacked Russian troops in Crimea

The United States secretly provided Ukraine with long-range Army tactical surface-to-surface missiles (ATACMS) with a range of 300 km for the first time last week, and the Ukrainian military immediately used them to strike a Russian military airport on the Crimean Peninsula on the 17th and on the night of the 22nd. American media, including the New York Times, reported on the 24th that it struck the Russian military concentration area in Verdyansk, southeastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military’s leadership said that the ATACMS missiles struck the Russian military airport in Zhankoy, Crimea, destroying Russia’s newest air defense system, four S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, three radar bases, and an air defense command center.

Ukraine’s Crimean Wind, which searches social media, reported that locals say ATACM continued to cause fires that were not extinguished four hours after the strike and spread to nearby residential areas.

The Ukrainian military has requested long-range missiles that can hit the rear of the Russian army, but the United States has so far refused to do so out of concern for escalation of the war. Long-range ATACMS can hit logistics bases and military concentration areas behind the Russian army, so Russia must retreat beyond this range. However, in October last year, the Joe Biden administration provided support to Ukraine for the older ATACMS, which is equipped with cluster bombs limited to a range of 160 km.

However, in mid-February, President Biden secretly approved providing Ukraine with “more than 100” long-range versions of ATACMS. Accordingly, support for long-range ATACMS was included in the $300 million military support program announced in March. U.S. officials have not disclosed how many new (long-range) ATACMS have been provided to Ukraine so far.

In this regard, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan revealed the supply of the new ATACMS to Ukraine and said, “We have already sent some, and we have the authority and funds to send more.” The new ATACMS, which will receive additional support in the future, is included in the $61 billion Ukraine Military Support Act approved by the U.S. Congress on the 23rd and signed by President Biden.

However, while the Biden administration kept secret the fact that it had supplied this long-range version of ATACMS, U.S. congressional leaders were unaware of this and demanded that Ukraine provide the long-range version.

Admiral Christopher Grady, Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on the 24th, “The White House and U.S. military strategists decided that, considering the current war situation, it was time to provide it to Ukraine,” adding, “When any weapon is newly provided to the battlefield, it is “We must consider the risk of escalation of war that comes with weapons,” he said. “I am confident that if used properly, (the new weapon) will be very destructive,” he said.

The Ukrainian government did not disclose the fact that it had recently received long-range ATACMS from the United States. However, on the 23rd, President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the US Congress for passing the military aid bill and wrote on social media .

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that the reason the United States decided to provide the new ATACMS with a range of 300 km was based on the judgment that Russia had recently secured weapons with long-range strike capabilities from North Korea and were using them on the battlefield in Ukraine. “We told Russia last year that if they use long-range missiles in Ukraine, we will provide the same capabilities to Ukraine,” an official told the news agency.

A high-ranking U.S. military official said that ATACMS missiles newly provided by the U.S. were used by the Ukrainian military to attack Russian troops in Verdyansk, a city on the southern Azov Sea coast, on the night of the 22nd.

U.S. Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “With this attack, Ukraine has proven once again that it can win the battlefield if it has the necessary tools,” and added, “Russian military assets, including ammunition depots and fuel tanks in the Crimea. can now attack all. “If we had supported this missile two years ago, it would have been very different (from now),” he said.

In addition to the ‘risk of escalation’, the U.S. Department of Defense has opposed the provision of ATACMS due to concerns about a decrease in the U.S. Army’s long-range missile inventory. NYT reported, “Since its development in the 1980s, only about 4,000 ATACMS have been produced, and this missile is used in the U.S. Department of Defense’s major war plans, including emergencies on the Korean Peninsula.”

However, as the U.S. Army began receiving the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), which will replace ATACMS, from Lockheed Martin in December of last year, there was room for room in the U.S. Army’s long-range missile capabilities. PrSM has a range of over 500 km. The manufacturer of ATACMS is also Lockheed Martin.