Ukraine's new US-made ATACMS are likely pushing Russian aircraft away from the front lines, experts say

Thibault Spirlet
·2 min read
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  • Ukraine attacked Russian airfields with new ATACMS missile systems, a US-based think tank said.

  • The weapons could push Russian aircraft away from the front, per the Institute for the Study of War.

  • The US-provided tactical missile systems also pose a threat to Russian ammo depots, it said.

Ukraine's strikes on "operationally significant" Russian airfields with its new US-made ATACMS will likely force Russia's military to pull some of its aircraft away from the front lines, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

In its daily assessment on Wednesday, the US think tank stated that Ukrainian attacks on two occupied regions on Tuesday were carried out with the US-provided ATACMS.

Ukraine's defense ministry said that its forces attacked two major Russian airfields in occupied Zaporizhia and Luhansk regions on Tuesday, resulting in the loss of nine Russian helicopters, an air-defense launcher, vehicles, and ammunition depots, as well as severe damage to the airstrips. It did not specify the weapons used in the attacks.

Following the strikes, open-source intelligence sources, Russian military bloggers, and analysts speculated on social media that Ukraine used recently acquired ATACMS to carry out the attack.

The ISW said that with the new MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, obtained from the US, Ukrainian forces will be able to launch more destructive attacks against Russian aircraft, pushing them away from the front lines.

"The Ukrainian ATACMS strikes on operationally significant Russian airfields in Ukraine will likely prompt the Russian command to disperse aviation assets and withdraw some aircraft to airfields further from the frontline," it said.

The ISW added that Russia also scattered its aircraft across the airfields, citing satellite imagery, meaning that Ukraine was probably only able to target a single aircraft at a time.

This will change with Ukraine's new cluster munition-armed version of the ATACMS long-range missiles, which can strike "more widely", the ISW said.

In the early months of Ukraine's counteroffensive, Russian forces used rotary-wing aircraft to "great effect" against Ukrainian assaults on the front lines, the ISW said.

But the US-provided missile systems will likely force Russia to disperse its aircraft across Russian-occupied Ukraine, which will disrupt support for Russian defensive efforts and offensive operations in significant ways, it said.

The arrival of ATACMS also poses a significant threat to Russian ammunition depots in rear areas, it added.

However, the think tank noted that Russia has adapted to new Ukrainian strike capabilities in the past — albeit only after suffering "pronounced losses".

Read the original article on Business Insider