Defence Express tells when and how many ATACMS missiles Ukraine can receive

MGM-140 ATACMS and M142 HIMARS tactical missiles
Photo: open sources

He spoke about this on Espreso TV.

"I have not yet seen information that the transfer of ATACMS missiles is already underway. Rather, I believe that the transfer of these missiles will be accompanied by a Pentagon statement that some high-precision weapons will be transferred during the next military aid package. That is, this standard wording will be used to hide ATACMS. The transfer will be officially recognized when the fragments with serial numbers appear. The same situation as with the HARM anti-radar missiles. By the way, the HARM missiles were officially transferred as anti-radar weapons. And when everything became clear and there were photos to prove it, that's when the United States recognized the transfer of these missiles. I think this will be the case with ATACMS as well," explained the editor-in-chief of Defense Express.

Oleh Katkov noted that the head of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, Budanov, said in an interview that there should not be about a hundred ATACMS missiles. Because a hundred will not change anything, hundreds of such missiles will.

"However, there is such a term as the marginal resource of these missiles in the United States. I would note that Ukraine needs specific ATACMS with a range of 300 kilometers and a cluster warhead. According to a declassified Pentagon report from 2007, it was announced that the United States had about 500 of these missiles that year. The fact is that production of these missiles stopped in 2003. Accordingly, their number has not increased since 2007. Therefore, five hundred missiles are the maximum resource that the United States has at its disposal," Katkov said.

The military expert added that any weapon, especially missiles, has a certain service life. ATACMS has a service life of 10 years. After 10 years, the missile is refueled, serviced, and electronic components are replaced, i.e., maintenance is performed to increase the service life.

"Let's hope that the U.S. has carried out the relevant work and has almost five hundred ATACMS in cassette version with a range of up to 300 km and that these missiles will be gradually transferred to Ukraine," Oleh Katkov summarized.