Biden has allowed Ukraine to unleash America’s Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) on Russia, capable of killing everyone within a 45-foot radius of its blast.
Each ATACMS missile carries a WDU18 ‘blast fragmentation warhead’ equivalent to 500 pounds of TNT, which it can launch up to a range of 186 miles.
According to United Nation’s estimates, the missiles are capable of making homes ‘uninhabitable’ out to a 176-foot radius, and blowing out windows and human eardrums even further away, as much as 1,881 feet and 188 feet, respectively.
The high-speed, rocket-powered munitions were designed to evade intercepts and deliver either precision or guided cluster munitions via specialized onboard GPS.
Ukrainian leaders have long sought permission from the US to launch ATACMS and other long-range missiles into Russian territory — in an effort to blunt Moscow’s efforts to supply troops and weapons to the frontlines of their invasion.
Early reports suggest that Biden has only authorized missile strikes into Russia’s Kursk region: territory that Ukrainian troops seized earlier in 2024 in an aggressive surprise move to change the balance of negotiations that might end the war.
But the ATACMS go-ahead has been accused by some, including Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, of ‘adding fuel to the fire and provoking further escalation.’
News that Biden has granted Kyiv permission to launch American-made long-range missiles into Russia has renewed attention on these weapons’ capabilities. Above, a US Army pic of an Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) fired from an M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System
Above, US Army Sergeant and gunner Ian Ketterling prepares the crane for loading an ATACMS on to a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) in Queensland, , on July 26, 2023
The ATACMS, produced by major US defense and aerospace contractor Lockheed Martin, can be tailored for GPS-guided precision strikes or for varying ranges of cluster bomb strikes, opening in mid-air to deliver hundreds of dispersed bomblets.
Anywhere from 300 to 950 submunitions can be packed into each ATACMS warhead, which are camouflaged to be visually indistinguishable from less sophisticated, unguided M26 rockets that can be fired from the same launchers.
Masking the ATACMS as standard Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) payloads helps to prevent enemy combatants from targeting these more expensive missiles.
When an ATACMS ‘airbust’ fuze setting is used for maximum cluster bombing, the weapon’s total impact area can exceed a radius of 1640 feet (500 meters).
The missile, which is road-mobile and easy to store thanks to its solid-propellant fuel, was first used by the United States in combat during the first Gulf War in 1991.
ATACMS have since been exported to several US allies including Bahrain, Greece, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington DC-based think tank.
Above, specs on the ATACMS system from its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel remove part of a Russian missile that hit an apartment house during massive missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, this past weekend, on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024
Above, Ukrainian Emergency Service personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack in Poltava region, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024
Vladimir Dzhabarov, a deputy foreign affairs head in Russian parliament who accused Biden of stoking ‘World War III,’ further accused him of scheming to ‘reduce the degree of freedom for Trump’ ahead of the president-elect’s inauguration.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has spelled out those risks in more threatening terms, saying in September that long-range strikes could change ‘the very nature of the conflict dramatically.’
‘This will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia,’ Putin said in September, according to the Associated Press.
Despite the alleged risk of escalation, Pentagon spokesman Lt Col Charlie Dietz said that the ATACMS likely would not even be sufficient to thwart Russia’s true long-range threats to Ukraine.
Lt Col Dietz noted that Russia has frequently made use of long-range ‘glide bombs,’ winged, sometimes retrofitted explosives fired from well beyond the ATACMS’ 180-mile range much deeper into Russia.
As many as 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, according to US, South Korean and Ukrainian assessments.
US and South Korean intelligence officials say North Korea also has provided Russia with significant amounts of munitions to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.
American and Ukrainian officials have described the move to authorize the use of these long-range missiles as a response to North Korea’s decision to send troops to assist Putin’s forces in the regional conflict.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been cautious in his rhetoric around these newly granted permissions tied to US military aid.
File image of a US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) firing a missile into the East Sea during a South Korea-US joint missile drill
Biden is set to leave office in a matter of weeks and will be replaced by Trump
‘Today, many in the media are talking about the fact that we have received permission to take appropriate actions,’ Zelenskyy said.
‘But blows are not inflicted with words. Such things are not announced,’ he added. ‘The rockets will speak for themselves.’
Prior to this moment, Ukraine had already been firing its own less sophisticated weapons as far as 620 miles (1,000 km) into Russia — all though public estimates suggest the country lacks the domestic production to do serious long-term harm.
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Experts have stated that, while US and NATO forces appear to hope that these missiles serve as a deterrent that favorably influences future cease-fire negotiations, the reality may depend on the specific rules that US has given Kyiv on their use.
Permission to strike anywhere within range across Russia could dramatically compromise the Kremlin’s ability to react and operate tactically on the battlefield.
But, if strikes are restricted to the Ukraine-occupied Kursk region, the Russia may easily be able to relocate its command centers and air units to hidden zones nearby, undermining any effort to restrict Russia’s assault on Ukrainian forces.