Could HIMARS turn the tide of war in Ukraine? | Europe | News and current affairs from around the continent | DW

In late June, Ukraine introduced it had destroyed a Russian navy base in Izyum, within the japanese Donbas area, killing no less than 40 troopers. One other strike that evening reportedly killed a commander of Russia’s elite VDV paratrooper regiment. 

They had been the primary Russian victims of HIMARS (the M142 Excessive Mobility Artillery Rocket System), a mid to long-range missile system that has allowed Ukraine to strike deep past the entrance traces for the primary time since Russia invaded in February.

The US started to ship HIMARS to Ukraine in June, as Russia continued to advance by means of Donbas and Luhansk in an artillery-heavy offensive. Since then, HIMARS have change into a useful device for Ukraine’s navy, which says it has performed dozens of strikes on Russian targets, together with air protection techniques and ammunition shops.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin mentioned the US would ship 4 extra HIMARS, bringing the entire quantity despatched to Ukraine as much as 16. 

“HIMARS have already made a HUUUGE distinction on the battlefield,” Ukraine’s protection minister, Oleksii Reznikov, tweeted on July 9. “Extra of them in addition to [US] ammo & gear will improve our energy and assist to demilitarize the terrorist state.”

What’s the HIMARS?

The HIMARS is a truck-mounted a number of rocket launcher manufactured by Lockheed Martin. It entered manufacturing within the Nineties and was first deployed by the US navy within the mid-2000s.

The launcher might be mounted with both six GPS-guided, mid-range GMLRS, that are guided missiles with a variety of 92 kilometers (57 miles) or one long-range guided ATACMS surface-to-surface missile, with a variety of 300 kilometers (186 miles). Nonetheless, the US has not provided ATACMS to Ukraine, fearing they might be used to assault Russian soil, which might be seen by the Kremlin as an escalation of American involvement within the battle.

The HIMARS is manned by three crew members and takes 5 minutes to reload. A cell system, it may possibly relocate rapidly after launch to guard the crew and system from any return hearth from an enemy combatant, a capability known as “shoot and scoot.” 

The system prices round $5 million (€4.8 million) per unit to provide and greater than 540 have been used within the area, in line with Lockheed Martin. The US, Romania, Singapore, Untied Arab Emirates, Jordan and now Ukraine are the one international locations to at the moment possess HIMARS. Gross sales have been authorized to Poland and Taiwan, and final week Estonia confirmed it will buy as much as six techniques from the US as a part of a $500-million bundle.

HIMARS have been deployed beforehand in Afghanistan, the place the US used them towards the Taliban in Kandahar province, and towards so-called “Islamic State” forces in Iraq in the course of the battle of Mosul.

Are the HIMARS a game-changer?

Within the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, foreign-supplied anti-tank weapons, just like the NLAW and Javelin, proved essential in defending the advance of Russian armored columns towards cities similar to Kyiv and Kharkiv.

In latest months, Russia has been trudging slowly by means of japanese Ukraine, capturing the remaining Ukrainian-held cities in Luhansk and far of Donbas beneath a hail of heavy artillery hearth. 

Ukraine is outgunned in the case of typical artillery, which has a most vary of round 40 kilometers (25 miles). However the HIMARS have confirmed essential in upping Ukraine’s navy energy — efficient at placing key command, communications and logistics facilities nicely behind enemy traces, all whereas remaining safely out of vary of Russian shelling.

Their impression has clearly been felt by Russia, which doesn’t seem to have a simple approach to defend its troops and infrastructure from these precision missiles. On Monday, Russian Protection Minister Sergei Shoigu gave orders to “prioritize the defeat of the enemy’s long-range missile and artillery weapons with high-precision weapons,” in line with a state Telegram channel.

Russia has thus far struggled to counter the HIMARS’ potential to strike vital targets

Ukraine has used HIMARS to interrupt Russia’s provide of artillery to its entrance, the place Russian forces are utilizing an estimated 20,000 shells per day, in line with a report by the Royal United Providers Institute. In early July, movies posted to social media confirmed what seemed to be ammunition dumps in flames, together with a truck heart in Donetsk belonging to the Russia car producer Kamaz; the buildings had been probably struck by HIMARS.

Precision rockets have additionally been used to hit high-value targets. Based on Serhiy Bratchuk, an official for the Odessa area, a HIMARS rocket strike earlier this month close to Kherson killed Russian Main Normal Artyom Nasbulin, the chief of employees of the twenty second Military Corps.

The Russian S-400 air protection missile system has apparently been unable to intercept these missiles, and it stays unclear whether or not Russian intelligence has managed to efficiently find and assault them. The Russian Protection Ministry mentioned on Friday it had destroyed 4 HIMARS. Nonetheless, Normal Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Workers, mentioned in a press convention on Wednesday that not one of the techniques have thus far been destroyed. He additionally mentioned that round 200 Ukrainian troops have been educated to make use of HIMARS.

As with different weapons that appeared to briefly flip the tide of the conflict, like NLAWs and Turkish Bayraktar drones, Russia might discover methods to adapt to or cut back the effectiveness of HIMARS. 

There are additionally issues that the techniques can be troublesome to keep up and restore over time, and that shares of the pricey missiles will deplete rapidly.

“The difficulty will change into ammunition and the consumption charges,” mentioned Milley. 

Edited by: Cristina Burack