What are ATACMS, the US missiles that Ukraine fired at Russia?
Ukraine’s military used US-made ATACMS missiles to attack Russia for the first time on Tuesday, according to senior US and Ukrainian officials.
Two days earlier, the Biden administration had authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied ballistic missiles for strikes inside Russia for the first time, in a significant policy shift.
The ballistic missiles are known as the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS (pronounced “attack ’ems”).
Ukraine has been pressing the United States for years to receive authorization, which comes in the final months of the Biden administration. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will seek a quick end to the war in Ukraine.
What do these missiles do?
ATACMS, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, are short-range ballistic missiles that, depending on the model, can hit targets 300 kilometers away with a warhead containing around 170 kilograms of explosives. Ballistic missiles fly much higher in the atmosphere than artillery rockets and often farther, returning to the ground at incredibly high speeds due to gravity.
They can be fired from the HIMARS mobile launchers that the United States has supplied to Ukraine, as well as from older M270 launchers sent from Britain and Germany.
ATACMS are often called “long-range missiles,” but that is a subjective term. They can reach further into Russia than any other Ukrainian missile, but they cannot travel as far as a cruise missile or an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The ATACMS missile was developed in the 1980s to destroy high-value Soviet targets deep behind enemy lines. It was built as a rare guided weapon at a time when the United States relied primarily on “dumb bombs” and other unguided munitions.
Today, the Pentagon has two versions of ATACMS in its inventory — a cluster weapon (dispersal bombs) and one that carries a single explosive payload.
What happened in the Ukraine airstrike?
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that Ukraine used six ATACMS on Tuesday. He claimed that five of the missiles were shot down and another was damaged, saying falling fragments caused a fire at the military facility, but there were no casualties.
The Ukrainian army said it struck a large ammunition depot in Russia’s Bryansk region before dawn, but did not specify the weapon used. The Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the use of ATACMS.
The attack occurred on the same day that President Vladimir Putin lowered Russia’s threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, a long-planned move whose timing appeared intended to show that the Kremlin could respond aggressively to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory with US long-range missiles.
Why did the US wait?
The decision on whether to arm Ukraine with ATACMS has been a sensitive issue since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since the start of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been begging for weapons that can reach even deeper into controlled territory across Russia and, eventually, in Russia itself.
The United States supplied ATACMS to Ukraine last year, but the Biden administration had until now withheld its approval for its cross-border use in Russia.
The White House has been concerned that if Ukraine used the missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin could respond with escalation.
“We are trying to avoid World War III,” said President Joe Biden.
Some Pentagon officials also opposed giving these missiles to the Ukrainians due to limited supplies.
Zelensky says this type of weapon is crucial to his country’s ability to launch a broader counteroffensive and has insisted he has no plans to attack Russian cities or civilian targets.
On Sunday, he suggested in an evening speech that the US restriction had been lifted, without confirming it, saying: “These things are not announced. The rockets will speak for themselves.”
How will Ukraine use them?
In addition to attacks inside Russia, U.S. officials have said Ukraine may use ATACMS to support Ukrainian troops against Russian and North Korean forces in the Kursk region of western Russia.
The Russian army is preparing to launch a major attack with around 50,000 soldiers, including North Korean troops, on fortified Ukrainian positions in Kursk, with the aim of retaking all of the Russian territory that the Ukrainians seized in August.
The Ukrainians could use ATACMS to target Russian and North Korean troop concentrations, key pieces of military equipment, logistics nodes, ammunition depots, and supply lines deep inside Russia. This could help the Ukrainians reduce the effectiveness of the Russian-North Korean counteroffensive.
Last year, Biden agreed to supply several hundred ATACMS for use in Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory, including the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. Therefore, it is unclear how many of the missiles the Ukrainians still have in their arsenal to use in the Kursk region.
Did the US use them in combat?
Yes. The US military fired about 30 ATACMS in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm, according to government records. They were used to attack Iraqi medium-range ballistic missile launchers and surface-to-air missile sites.
These first generation cluster munition versions could fly about 100 miles. Once over their targets, they released 950 submunitions.
The Army also fired more than 400 of the tactical missiles that carry submunitions in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to government records, notably in the early hours of the 2003 invasion.
The Pentagon later restricted the use of cluster munitions because they often failed, littering the battlefield with dangerous debris that killed and injured soldiers and civilians after combat ended. The Army refurbished many of the early ATACMS in the 2000s and replaced the submunitions with a single explosive warhead.
