US made ATACMS missile being launched directly into Russia. Nov 19, 2024<\/p>\n
Stocks of key surface-to-surface high precision missiles in the U.S. Army \u2014 including the ATACMS missile fielded by Ukraine \u2014 have been badly depleted by the Trump administration’s war against Iran this year, Reuters reported on Aug. 4, citing three sources familiar with the data.<\/p>\n
The report comes as shortages of key U.S.-made weapons systems, especially the Patriot<\/a> interceptor missile, have come to impact Ukraine’s own war effort.<\/p>\n Reuters’ sources<\/a>, while not disclosing the exact numbers of each missile type remaining in the Army’s stocks, said that the dramatic depletion may result in riskier bomber missions needed to strike targets that would otherwise be hit from a safe distance.<\/p>\n The Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS)<\/a> and new-generation Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) are the Army’s main high-precision surface-to-surface strike assets, with the latter reaching a stated range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles).<\/p>\n Both missiles use the mobile M142 HIMARS and tracked M270 launchers.<\/p>\n After long campaigning from Kyiv, the first ATACMS missiles were delivered by the Biden administration to Ukraine in autumn 2023, after the much-awaited southern counteroffensive had already decisively faltered.<\/p>\n Kyiv later received more missiles, and in the final weeks of President Joe Biden’s<\/a> tenure, the permission to use them on Russian territory.<\/p>\n In 2026, ATACMS has been used by Ukrainian forces only a handful of times<\/a>, with Kyiv’s own stocks of the weapon understood to be severely depleted.<\/p>\n Instead, Ukrainian forces increasingly use drones like the FP-2 for most strikes at the range covered by ATACMS, with the British-French-made Storm Shadow\/SCALP cruise missile also an option for high-priority targets.<\/p>\n The next-gen PrSM, which entered service in 2023, has not been delivered to Ukraine.<\/p>\n