The US-made HIMARS truck-mounted rocket system is on display in March at the World Defense Show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Credit … Fayez Nureldine / Agence France-Presse – Getty Images
When Russia’s foreign minister made it clear that Moscow’s territorial ambitions extend beyond the eastern territories of Ukraine, the United States said Wednesday it would send four more advanced multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine. .
The rocket launchers, which can release salvos that rival the devastating effect of an air attack from a jet loaded with precision-guided bombs, are part of a series of new weapons of greater range than the United States. have been providing the outnumbered Ukrainian army. They underscore Washington’s determination to help counter Russian military power and President Vladimir V. Putin’s goal of subjugating Ukraine, a sovereign country.
But with Russia until recently making incremental but steady gains on the battlefield and with Ukraine’s Western allies struggling to keep up with Ukraine’s seemingly insatiable appetite for weapons, Ukraine faces a difficult struggle to achieve parity on the battlefield. And there are disagreements between Ukrainian and American officials about what would be needed.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that the four most advanced multiple rocket launchers would raise the total number provided by the United States to 16.
Video Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III announced that the U.S. military would send additional advanced rocket systems to help Ukraine defend itself. CreditCredit … Alex Brandon / Associated Press
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in June that Ukraine needed 300 multi-launch rocket systems and 500 tanks, among other things, to better compete with the forces Russia can deploy. This is several times more than promised Ukraine.
Michael G. Vickers, the former senior Pentagon civilian official for the counterinsurgency strategy, said this month that Ukrainians needed at least 60, and perhaps up to 100, HIMARS or other multi-launch rocket systems, to win the artillery battle.
The question of how long the US resolution will last amid rising gasoline prices and growing demands for national sacrifice in Europe and the United States is also being raised about arms transfers. The Biden administration has also been hesitant to provide weapons that could reach Russian territory and potentially provoke a wider war.
The dozen M142 HIMARS, an acronym for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, which already provide Pentagon reserves have already made a difference on the battlefield, Mr. Austin. Ukrainian soldiers have used them to destroy Russian command and control centers and ammunition depots. Each M142 HIMARS truck carries six guided rockets loaded with 200 pounds of high explosives that can hit targets 50 miles away.
“This affects the pace of the fight and potentially creates some opportunities here,” Austin said. “There is so much more to do: HIMARS alone will not change, nor will it win or lose a fight.”
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said this week that the Ukrainian military needed at least 100 U.S. launchers to “become a game changer on the battlefield.” HIMARS and other rocket launchers that have already been sent to Ukraine have helped destroy about 30 Russian command stations and ammunition storage units, he said.
“This has significantly slowed down Russian advance and drastically decreased the intensity of its artillery bombardment,” Mr. Reznikov in an online interview Tuesday for the Atlantic Council, a Washington research group. “So it works.”
As the debate continues in the West on what it takes to curb Russian forces, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said on Wednesday that Russia’s ambitions in Ukraine now extend beyond the territories of Russia. the east of the country, a difference from previous statements by the Kremlin that it is not waging a war of imperial expansion.
While Ukraine has intensified attacks on Russian forces in southern Ukraine as a possible prelude to a large-scale counteroffensive, Mr. Lavrov said Moscow was also looking at the Kherson and Zaporizka regions in southern Ukraine, parts of which are occupied by Russian forces. , as well as “a number of other territories.”
Eric Schmitt contributed to the report.