IRIA News

U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the latest aid package for Ukraine would include advanced rocket systems “that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine.”

The Biden administration is sending rocket systems with longer ranges under the $700 million security package officially announced on June 1. The package includes four M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), the Defense Department said.

The HIMARS system will provide Ukrainian troops with greater precision. The security package for Ukraine also includes the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System to be used with HIMARS. Those rockets are capable of hitting a target more than 40 miles away. 

“What the HIMARS will allow them to do is to get greater standoff. Right now, the Howitzers we provided them have about a 30 km range; the HIMARS have more than twice that, which will allow them — even with fewer systems — greater standoff,” Colin H. Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, said at a briefing. 

In addition to the four HIMARS systems, the latest package of equipment for Ukraine will include:

• Five counter-artillery radar systems
• Two air-surveillance radars
• 1,000 Javelins and 50 command launch units
• 6,000 antiarmor weapons
• 15,000 155-mm artillery rounds
• Four Mi-17 helicopters
• 15 tactical vehicles
• Additional spare parts and equipment. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been requesting the U.S. and its allies to immediately provide the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), however, the request was repeatedly refused by the U.S. out of the fear that such weapons could be used against targets inside Russia, escalating the situation even further.

While speaking to the reporters on May 30, President Biden categorically ruled out the possibility of sending long-range weaponry to Ukraine by stating, “We’re not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia.”

On June 1, U.S. President Biden eased his stance on the matter and announced that the next aid package for Ukraine would include advanced rocket systems in order to improve Kyiv’s negotiation position against Russia. While writing an opinion piece in the New York Times, Biden said: “I’ve decided that we will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine.”

Moscow sees the U.S. weapons package to Ukraine including the new systems “extremely negatively”. Kremlin is yet to comment on the matter, however, a prominent Russian TV host, Olga Skabeeva, said on her high-profile show on the state network Russia-1 that, “at the present moment, the issue is being addressed by the U.S. presidential administration. So now, we are not even talking about tactical weapons anymore, but about the operational-tactical weapons.”

Skabeeva further added, “The U.S. MLRS can launch shells over 500 kilometers. And if the Americans do this, they will clearly cross a red line, and we will record an attempt to provoke a very harsh response from Russia.”

A senior White House official confirmed that the U.S. still does not intend to provide Ukraine with long-range MLRS, instead, the new weaponry would include M142 HIMARS, without specifying the number of units to be supplied.

Although the range of the M142 HIMARS is not as much as the requested MRLS, the system can launch multiple precision-guided missiles at targets as far as 70km away, which is far further than the artillery that Ukraine currently has. The GPS-guided rockets are much more accurate than the equivalent Russian systems. It is also much quicker to reload and the launch vehicles can move quickly from one location to another.

Separately, the German government has promised to send an air defense system to Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the MPs that the IRIS-T system was the most modern that Germany possessed and it would enable Ukraine to defend an entire city against Russian air attacks. He added that he would provide tracking radar capable of detecting enemy artillery, and multiple rocket launchers.