Ukraine seeks more US HIMARS

 Independent:

A US-made mobile artillery system is being used to devastating effect by Ukrainian forces in the fight against Russia’s invasion. So much so that Ukraine has asked for dozens more to potentially turn the tide of the war.

The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), a truck-mounted rocket launcher, has wreaked havoc on Russian positions far behind the frontlines, destroying command posts and ammunition depots, according to US and Ukrainian military officials.

Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said in televised remarks on Monday that his country’s forces have used the rocket system to destroy more than 50 Russian ammunition depots since receiving them from the US last month. Reports from commanders on the ground suggest they have played a part in stalling Russia’s advance in the Donbas region.

The first HIMARS were delivered to Ukraine in June, at a time when Ukrainian forces were suffering heavy casualties in Donbas. The Pentagon announced the delivery of four more systems on Friday, bringing the total number to 16. The US has also trained some 200 Ukrainians to operate them.

The HIMARS gives Ukrainian forces the ability to fire rockets faster and with more precision than it has ever done before. The truck-mounted launchers fire GPS-guided missiles that can hit targets 50 miles away. The trucks they are fired from are nimble and hard to spot, which makes them hard for Russia to destroy.

Their success has been touted by both Ukrainian and American military leaders. In a Pentagon briefing call with reporters last week, a senior US defence official said that the Ukrainians were “employing very precise, very accurate targeting of critical Russian positions with their HIMARS”.

A senior US military official, during the same briefing, called HIMARS “the most hunted things in all of Ukraine” due to their effectiveness in disrupting Russian operations.
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“We know from the way that the Russians fight that they need someone to tell them what to do. When you are able to kill the people that tell them what to do, you’re able to stop those folks from moving forward. And we continue to see that,” the official said.

“We are seeing indications that the Russians are trying to adjust for the effect that the HIMARS are having on them,” they added.
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Ukrainian casualties mounted quickly. At the beginning of June, a senior Ukrainian presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, told the BBC that between 100 and 200 Ukrainian troops were being killed on the Donbas front line every day.

That changed when the first shipment of HIMARS arrived in Ukraine.

Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and former US marine who tracks Russian equipment losses, described the HIMARS as an “extremely accurate weapons system” that has played a key role in reducing Russia’s artillery advantage.
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The question that remains is whether the HIMARS will be sufficient for Ukraine to launch a counteroffensive. Mr Reznikov said in a video appearance at the Atlantic Council earlier this month that his forces would need dozens more to achieve that goal.

“For an effective counteroffensive, we need at least 100,” he said, according to The Washington Post. “That would be a game changer.”
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While the HIMARS have helped against the Russian artillery attack Ukraine is likely to need more to go on the offensive and drive the Russians out of Ukraine. They may be starting to get some US tanks that could help in that regard but they probably also need an effective air operation.