2024-08-19 08:09:32
The USA apparently wants to deliver more long-range missiles to Ukraine. These will then probably be fired from F-16 fighter jets.
The USA is apparently considering supplying more long-range weapons to Ukraine. For example, Ukraine’s new F-16 fighter jets are apparently to be equipped with JASSM cruise missiles, reports Politico.
A final decision on the delivery of the cruise missile has not yet been made, the government is currently working on the details, reports a Biden administration official. The transfer of sensitive technologies and whether the Ukrainian jets can fire the cruise missile, which weighs around one ton and has a 450 kilogram warhead, still need to be clarified. According to the report, the US Department of Defense is already working with the Ukrainian armed forces on a solution.
The government initially declined to comment. “We are reviewing a number of options to meet Ukraine’s security assistance requests, but we have no information to share,” Politico quoted Pentagon spokesman Jeff Jurgensen as saying.
According to missile technology expert Fabian Hoffmann, the JASSM is comparable to the French-British Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG cruise missiles or the German Taurus cruise missile. “JASSM is characterized by a fuselage that is difficult to detect and has a smaller radar cross-section than other cruise missiles in its class,” Hoffmann writes on X.
Unlike the Taurus, however, the JASSM does not have a warhead for penetrating bunker facilities. “However, there are probably no Russian targets in Ukraine for which this would be relevant.” Read more about the Taurus cruise missile here.
According to Hoffmann’s estimate, the US acquired around 2,000 of the cruise missiles between 2003 and 2021. Although some of the missiles have already been deployed, the US should have a significant arsenal. If Ukraine received the JASSM cruise missiles, the Ukrainian armed forces would have “access to two types of Western long-range weapons in large numbers for the first time,” the expert writes.
The Ukrainian stocks of Storm Shadow/SCALP-EP cruise missiles are likely to have been largely used up by now. However, Ukraine still has ATACMS ballistic missiles from the USA. Both weapons systems would “significantly complicate” Russian missile defense efforts, said Hoffmann. The Ukrainian armed forces could overcome Russian air and missile defenses more easily with these missiles.
With a range of around 370 kilometers, Ukraine could also reach targets on the Crimean peninsula, where hundreds of Russian military bases, airfields, air defense systems and logistics centers are located. The new cruise missile also enables attacks deep behind the front lines in the partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In addition, Russian military airports and aircraft up to 200 kilometers behind the border could be destroyed. Estimates suggest that at least 20 airfields could be attacked.