There’s One Thing Ukraine’s ATACMS Missiles Can’t Do: Blow Up Tanks

Ukraine’s new, American-made M39 rockets can scrape entire helicopter regiments off their airfields and perforate supply convoys and air-defense batteries.

But there are plenty of things the M39s can’t do. Among them, destroy the best-protected combat vehicles. The reason is simple: the M39’s warhead dispenses around a thousand grenade-size submunitions but, absent a very lucky hit, no single submunition is powerful enough to inflict serious damage on a tank.

The M39 Army Tactical Missile System is a two-ton, 13-foot ballistic missile with a solid rocket motor and a warhead containing 950 grenade-size M74 submunitions. Fired by a tracked M270 or wheeled High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System launcher, the 1990s-vintage missile ranges as far as 100 miles under inertial guidance.

The U.S. Army has hundreds of expired, or nearly-expired, M39s in its arsenal. The administration of U.S. president Joe Biden in recent weeks quietly shipped to Ukraine an undisclosed number of the aged rockets—presumably following an inspection of their solid rocket motors.

On Monday night or early Tuesday morning, three Ukrainian army HIMARS fired one M39 apiece at an airfield outside Berdyansk, in Russian-occupied Ukraine. The rockets streaked right past Russian air-defenses and scattered their nearly 3,000 M74 submunitions on the airfield’s northern apron, blowing up the Russian air force Mil Mi-24 and Kamov Ka-52 attack helicopters parked there.

The Ukrainian military claimed it destroyed nine helicopters. Analysts have confirmed the destruction of as many as six. Either way, it was a devastating loss—“one of the most serious strikes of all time” in Russia’s 21-month wider war on Ukraine, according to Fighterbomber, a popular Russian Telegram channel.

The M39 and its one-pound, steel-and-tungsten M74 submunitions is perfect for attacking soft area targets. “Upon impact and detonation, each grenade breaks up into a large number of high-velocity steel fragments that are effective against targets such as truck tires, missile rounds, thin-skinned vehicles and radar antennas,” U.S. Army major James Hutton wrote for the Center for Army Lessons Learned.

But don’t waste a million-dollar M39 on a tank regiment. Its submunition “is not effective against armored vehicles,” Hutton stressed.

Yes, a storm of M74s might damage a tank’s optics and, with luck, could poke through the thin armor on top of the hull and ding the engine. But don’t expect a direct hit by an M74 to stop an armored assault if the tanks are buttoned up and spread out.

It’s not for no reason that, in the late 1990s, the U.S. Army developed a new version of the ATACMS missile that would have carried 13 guided anti-tank munitions. The Army ultimately canceled the new missile, but not because the other ATACMS variants suddenly got better at destroying tanks. It was a cost-saving move.

The Biden Administration has stressed that the United States will supply Ukraine with ATACMS “without risking our military readiness.” That seems to mean that expired, or nearly-expired, M39s are eligible for transfer—and so are old M48s with 500-pound unitary warheads. New M57s will remain with U.S. forces.

The M39s and M48s between them give the Ukrainians’ 60 or so M270 and HIMARS launchers a lot of options. The M39’s M74 submunitions can sweep clean Russian airfields and logistical sites. The M48 with its penetrating warhead—borrowed from the Harpoon anti-ship missile—can blow up buried bunkers and demolish buildings.

But when Russian tanks attack, the Ukrainians might want to take aim with different munitions.