Saturday 4 June 2022

Putin is getting rattled by the US rockets

So Putin is going to bomb Western cities (with what?) if the Ukrainians use their new longer-range rockets supplied by the US to hit Russian targets over the border. It's all rhetoric but it serves as a warning that ths war could escalate beyond control if something goes wrong.With the arrival of the new rocket system the room for miscalcuation has widened significantly. The Ukrainian military will have to wait at least three weeks before they can start firing the new advanced multiple launch rocket systems being provided by the US. The four M152 high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) are being brought out of US pre-positioned stocks held in Europe. They were sent there in anticipation of President Biden’s decision to approve the delivery of these longer-range weapons for Ukraine. However, US officials said the Ukrainians would need around three weeks to be trained on how to launch the precision-guided rockets and also to maintain the HIMARS. It’s expected that this training will take place in Poland or possibly Germany. But by the end of this month the Ukrainians should be operating a weapon system that will allow them to fire accurate weapons over a range of more than 40 miles. “These are precision-guided systems with extended range. For high value targets that allows them to keep some of the pressure off the Ukrainian forces on the front,” Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defence for policy at the Pentagon, said. The Ukrainians have already shown they are adept at learning rapidly how to use western weapons, and have proven in combat how they have successfully operated the M777 howitzers previously sent by the US which have half the range of the HIMARS artillery. The vehicle-mounted HIMARS launchers can fire volleys of six guided rockets at a time that land within several feet of the target. The question is, will the rockets make such a difference on the battlefield that Putin gets seriously angry and seeks revenge against the US? He knows that Biden will continue to send more and more arms, so at some point Putin might say to himself, enough is enough. And then what will he do? In addition to the four HIMARS systems, the latest $700 million package of weapons provided by the US includes five counter-artillery radars, two air-surveillance radars, 1,000 more Javelin anti-tank missiles, 6,000 anti-armour weapons, 15,000 155mm artillery rounds and four more Mi-17 helicopters. The US has now committed about $5.3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine under the Biden administration, of which $4.6 billion has been provided since the Russian invasion on February 24. It's a staggering sum.

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