The American president, Joe Biden, undertook on Tuesday to provide kyiv “missile systems and more advanced ammunition”, followed by the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz on Wednesday. The deliveries of Paris, on the other hand, remain modest.
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kyiv had been asking for it for weeks. In a column published on May 31 on the New York Times website, US President Joe Biden is committed to providing Ukraine “missile systems and more advanced” than those delivered by Westerners from the start Russian offensive on February 24. Objective: to allow Ukrainian troops to “target key targets on the battlefield” more precisely, while the forces of Moscow are progressing in Donbass, where the city of Sievierodonetsk could fall from one day to the next.
According to a list communicated Wednesday by the Pentagon, the new weapons delivered by the Americans include multiple rocket launchers M142 Himars (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System). Mounted on wheels, which makes them very mobile and not very vulnerable to brake shots, these devices allow to shoot simultaneously up to six missiles on targets located about 70 kilometers away. By way of comparison, the 155 mm cannons used by Ukrainians, in particular the M777 Americans or the French Caesar, must be satisfied with a range of 30 to 40 kilometers.
Above all, the precision of the M30 and M31 missiles that the United States undertakes to deliver with its Himars is a few meters, thanks to GPS or on-board inertial radars. A correctness that should allow Ukrainians to target the back lines of the forces of Moscow, in particular fuel deposits, telecommunications centers or transport infrastructure. “Many of the Russian refueling bases are close to the front, around 80 kilometers. These systems will allow to target their entire average logistical depth in the Donbass,” says Léo Péria-Peigné, researcher at the center of security studies of the ‘ French Institute of International Relations. The Himars are also much simpler and easier to recharge than their Russian equivalents, an asset in an artillery battle like that in progress in Donbass.
Avoid any risk of climbing
Theoretically, these multiple rocket launchers can also allow Ukraine to target objectives on Russian territory itself, such as the city of Belgorod, an important logistics base of the former red army, located about 40 kilometers from the border. According to the Pentagon, kyiv nevertheless committed not to do so, to avoid any risk of climbing. Precautionary, the United States did not plan to deliver MGM-140 Atacms to Ukraine Missiles (Army Tactical Missile System), a ballistic weapon capable of reaching a target at 300 kilometers and which can be launched with a Himars.
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