Lumbering M270 Launchers Just Lobbed Eight ATACMS Rockets With 8,000 Submunitions At
Lumbering M270 Launchers Just Lobbed Eight ATACMS Rockets With 8,000 Submunitions At A Russian Base In Crimea
On March 12, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden unexpectedly gifted to Ukraine a $300-million consignment of weapons—the last consignment paid for with funds the U.S. Congress approved before Republicans gained narrow control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2023.
Five weeks later, the Ukrainian finally put the weapons to good use.
The arms package reportedly included a small number of long-range M39 rockets, also known as Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS. On Tuesday night, the Ukrainian army fired some—maybe all—of the M39 ATACMS at a single Russian air base in occupied Crimea.
The damage was extensive. Imagery from the ground at Dzhankoy air base, 100 miles south of the front line, confirms the Russians lost at least four launchers belonging to an S-400 long-range surface-to-air missile battery. The Ukrainian defense ministry claimed the rockets also knocked out the S-400’s control center and four precious air-defense radars.
According to the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies, a regiment of helicopters and three squadrons of attack jets—dozens of aircraft in all—fly from Dzhankoy. It’s unclear whether any of the aircraft were damaged or destroyed on Tuesday night, however. “The enemy carefully hides the number of affected aircraft,” the defense ministry in Kyiv noted.
A video the ministry released on Thursday seems to depict seven or eight M39s streaking into the night sky, presumably somewhere around the free city of Kherson. Each 100-mile-range rocket carried nearly a thousand grenade-sized submunitions inside its 13-foot body—meaning as many as 8,000 individual explosions rocked the Russian base.
While the Ukrainian army’s wheeled High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems can each launch a single two-ton M39, the M270s can launch two. Considering the Ukrainians tend to operate their HIMARS and M270s in platoons of four launchers, it’s likely the latter carried out the raid on Dzhankoy.
The speedy HIMARS are media darlings in Ukraine: symbols of one of the Ukrainian military’s few technological advantages over the bigger and better-funded Russian military. The Tuesday raid was a rare chance for the lumbering M270s to shine.
The first consignment of M39s from the United States arrived in Ukraine last fall, a few weeks before the initial U.S. funding for the Ukrainian war effort began to run out.
Considering that aid package included just 20 or so M39s, it’s likely the belated aid package in March—which the White House paid for with unexpected savings from a previous contract for weapons for Ukraine—included fewer of the 1990s-vintage munitions. It’s possible there were just eight rockets, and that platoon of M270s fired all of them at Dzhankoy in a single fiery barrage.
If the damage was as bad as the Ukrainian defense ministry claimed, it may have been worth it to fire all the M39s. The Ukrainians can take comfort in knowing it’s highly likely they’re about to get more ATACMS rockets—potentially a lot more.
That’s because the Republican Speaker of the House, Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson, is finally bringing to a vote Biden’s proposal to spend $61 billion on weapons and other aid for Ukraine through the end of the year. The long-delayed vote, which is strongly opposed by a minority of Russia-friendly Republicans, is scheduled for Saturday—and is expected to pass.
A provision in the bill requires Biden to send more ATACMS to Ukraine. There are hundreds of the old rockets in the U.S. inventory, and their solid fuel is expiring soon. There’s no reason the White House couldn’t send all of them to Ukraine after the vote this weekend.
And there’s no reason the Ukrainian army can’t fire them at any Russian base within a hundred miles of the front line.
Ukraine's M270 Launchers Lobbed 8,000 Submunitions At One Russian Base
Pentagon prepares to send artillery, air defenses to Ukraine as House approaches vote
The Pentagon is preparing to quickly approve a weapons package for Ukraine that includes urgently needed artillery and air defenses as Congress lines up votes to pass additional funding for the country, according to two U.S. officials.
The Biden administration has not made a final decision on how large the tranche would be and what will be in it, said the officials, who were granted anonymity to speak about sensitive internal deliberations. But Defense Department officials are working on putting together a package of U.S. equipment that can move quickly through the bureaucratic process once the legislation passes and is signed by the president, one of the officials said.
“They will have that recommendation to the secretary very quickly, and that gets to the president shortly thereafter,” the official said.
The tranche — which would be only the second the U.S. has sent since running out of funds in December as Congress stalled on the president’s request for additional aid — will include artillery and air defenses to replenish Ukraine’s arsenal, the officials said. The White House approved one emergency package of $300 million last month, using cost savings from previous contracts.
Many U.S. weapons are already positioned in stores across Europe that could be pulled immediately for Ukraine, the first official said. Some materiel could reach Ukraine in days; others may take weeks.
Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder declined to get into specifics about what will be in any forthcoming package, but told reporters on Thursday that the U.S. has a “very robust logistics network that enables us to move materiel very quickly” – possibly within days.
“We certainly understand and appreciate the urgency and are poised to move quickly,” Ryder said.
The House is nearing a vote Saturday on four bills that would allocate $95 billion in funding to assist Ukraine, Israel and Pacific partners. Once passed, the Senate must still clear the aid package before Biden can sign it.
Of the nearly $61 billion for Ukraine, approximately $48 billion would go to the Pentagon to finance arming Kyiv, replenish weapons and pay for military operations in Europe.
The bill touts $23.2 billion for the military to replenish stocks of weapons and equipment provided to Ukraine. Another $13.8 billion would go toward the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative for the Pentagon to purchase new weapons for Kyiv.
And $11.3 billion would finance intensified troop operations in Europe.
The legislation also reauthorizes the Pentagon to send up to $7.8 billion worth of existing weapons from military inventories to Ukraine, which would then be replaced by the added funding in the package.
The Pentagon’s assistant secretary for international security affairs, Celeste Wallander, told lawmakers recently that the Pentagon would begin moving ammunition, artillery shells and air defenses quickly once Congress finally approves the aid.
“We would be able to, with [European Command’s] support and [Transportation Command’s] support, begin immediately, within a week or two, to provide the ammunition, the artillery ammunition, to provide interceptors to Ukraine,” Wallander told the House Armed Services Committee.
Top U.S. officials stressed this week that Ukraine will soon be in dire straits if Congress does not pass additional funding. CIA Director Bill Burns said without new U.S. weapons, Ukraine could lose by the end of the year.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers that Russia is making gains, as Ukraine struggles with ammunition shortages.
“We’re already seeing things on the battlefield begin to shift a bit in Russia’s favor. We are seeing them make incremental gains. We’re seeing the Ukrainians be challenged in terms of holding the line,” he said.
Just a moment...
US House passes $95 billion Ukraine, Israel aid package, sends to Senate
WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday with broad bipartisan support passed a $95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, over bitter objections from Republican hardliners.
The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-majority Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. U.S. leaders from Democratic President Joe Biden to top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell had been urging embattled Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring it up for a vote.
The Senate is set to begin considering the House-passed bill on Tuesday, with some preliminary votes that afternoon. Final passage was expected sometime next week, which would clear the way for Biden to sign it into law.
The bills provide $60.84 billion to address the conflict in Ukraine, including $23 billion to replenish U.S. weapons, stocks and facilities; $26 billion for Israel, including $9.1 billion for humanitarian needs, and $8.12 billion for the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed his thanks, saying U.S. lawmakers moved to keep "history on the right track."
"The vital U.S. aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger," Zelenskiy said on X.
It was unclear how quickly the new military funding for Ukraine will be depleted, likely causing calls for further action by Congress.
Biden, who had urged Congress since last year to approve the additional aid to Ukraine, said in a statement: "It comes at a moment of grave urgency, with Israel facing unprecedented attacks from Iran and Ukraine under continued bombardment from Russia."
The vote on passage of the Ukraine funding was 311-112. Significantly, 112 Republicans opposed the legislation, with only 101 in support.
"Mike Johnson is a lame duck ... he's done," far-right Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters afterward.
She has been a leading opponent of helping Ukraine in its war against Russia and has taken steps that threaten to remove Johnson from office over this issue. Greene stopped short of doing so on Saturday, however.
During the vote, several lawmakers waved small Ukrainian flags as it became clear that element of the package was headed to passage. Johnson warned lawmakers that was a "violation of decorum."
Meanwhile, the House's actions during a rare Saturday session put on display some cracks in what generally is solid support for Israel within Congress. Recent months have seen progressive Democrats express anger with Israel's government and its conduct of the war in Gaza.
Saturday's vote, in which the Israel aid was passed 366-58, had 37 Democrats and 21 Republicans in opposition.
Passage of the long-awaited legislation was closely watched by U.S. defense contractors, who could be in line for huge contracts to supply equipment for Ukraine and other U.S. partners.
Johnson this week chose to ignore ouster threats by hardline members of his fractious 218-213 majority and push forward the measure that includes Ukraine funding as it struggles to fight off a two-year Russian invasion.
The unusual four-bill package also includes a measure that includes a threat to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and the potential transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine.
Some hardline Republicans voicing strong opposition to further Ukraine aid argued the United States can ill afford it given its rising $34 trillion national debt. They have repeatedly raised the threat of ousting Johnson, who became speaker in October after his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted by party hardliners.
"It's not the perfect legislation, it's not the legislation that we would write if Republicans were in charge of both the House, the Senate, and the White House," Johnson told reporters on Friday. "This is the best possible product that we can get under these circumstances to take care of these really important obligations."
Representative Bob Good, chair of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, told reporters on Friday that the bills represent a "slide down into the abyss of greater fiscal crisis and America-last policies that reflect Biden and (Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck) Schumer and (House Democratic leader Hakeem) Jeffries, and don't reflect the American people."
But Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who carries huge influence in the party, on April 12 voiced support for Johnson and in a Thursday social media post said Ukraine's survival is important for the U.S.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...ge-2024-04-20/
