The Ukrainians’ American-Made Rockets Blast The Russians For The First Time

Ukraine’s new American-made rocket-launchers apparently have fired their first shots at Russian forces.

The first-ever documented fire-mission by the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, comes as Ukrainian troops finally pull back from the ruins of Severodonetsk, an industrial city with a pre-war population of 100,000 that was the last major free settlement east of the Donets River in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region before Kyiv ordered the retreat.

The attritional battle rages on in Donbas. Ukrainian forces are reconsolidating Lysychansk, Severodonetsk’s sister city on the west bank of the Donets River. Russia’s advantage in heavy artillery so far has been the decisive factor in the Donbas campaign. Ukraine’s growing HIMARS arsenal could blunt that advantage.

HIMARS is a truck-mounted, six-round launcher for 220-millimeter-diameter rockets. The rockets can fly as far as 44 miles with 200 pounds of explosives, depending on the model. Some rocket models feature GPS guidance.

Fast-firing and highly mobile with a range that’s farther than that of most Russian artillery, HIMARS is an ideal “counterbattery” system. That is, artillery specializing in destroying other artillery. Exactly what the Ukrainian army needs, in abundance, to fight back against Russian guns and slow the Russian army’s advance across Donbas.

“The HIMARS enable standoff distance, but they also with the munitions that we’re providing offer incredible precision,” an unnamed U.S. Defense Department official told reporters. “So this isn’t about, you know, volume. It’s about, you know, precise targeting.”

The administration of U.S. president Joe Biden pledged the first four HIMARS to Ukraine’s war effort back in early June. Training for the initial cadre of Ukrainian crews, which took place in an unspecified country adjacent to Ukraine, was swift.

Deployment was equally swift. On Thursday, Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov announced the HIMARS’ arrival in Ukraine. “Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers,” he tweeted. “And the last one for some of them.”

A day later video circulated online depicting the Ukrainian HIMARS firing rockets at night, presumably somewhere in or near Donbas.

To fight back against the Russian army’s many hundreds of deployed heavy guns, Ukraine needs many more artillery systems, Reznikov stressed. “When the circumstances on the battlefield are changing, the needs are increasing, too,” he stated.

The Pentagon’s policy was to send four HIMARS at first—then wait and see. “This initial tranche is going to help get the Ukrainians familiarized with the system and will provide us with information on how they’re using the system and how effective it is on the battlefield,” an unnamed U.S. Defense Department official told reporters on June 15. “And it’s that information, in combination with continued consultations with the Ukrainians, that will inform future decisions on additional systems.”

The Americans quickly made up their minds. The same day the first four HIMARS arrived in Ukraine, the White House pledged four more of the launchers to Kyiv as part of a new, $450-million arms package.

The U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps between them possess 400 or so HIMARS, and Lockheed MartinLMT
builds around 30 new launchers every year. The United States could transfer a lot more HIMARS to Ukraine without significantly degrading America’s own counterbattery capability.