- Ukrainian forces took out more than 100 Russian soldiers with an ATACMS missile, per OSINT analysts.
- Four ATACMS were used to target the group, one analyst said.
- The soldiers would have been out of reach of Ukraine’s shorter-range ATACMS missiles.
A Ukrainian ATACMS long-range missile strike killed more than 100 Russian soldiers in an occupied region 50 miles from the front line, according to OSINT and military analysts.
Ukrainian forces targeted a Russian military training area some 50 miles behind the front line in the occupied Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, per an assessment by The Institute for the Study of War.
According to two aerial geolocated videos posted on Wednesday by X user Osinttechnical, an account affiliated with the Centre for Naval Analyses, Ukraine appeared to strike the training area with three US-supplied M39 ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles.
I really hope we’re giving them Block 1A or later, because those have a max range of 170-186 miles, which is juuuuuust enough to reach the Kerch bridge from behind the front of battle.
Trying to demolish a capital structure like a bridge with rockets would be incredibly wasteful, they’re better spent for precision strikes on ammo depots, airports, vehicle storage, etc. The payload of the long-range ATACMS is only 214kg, somewhat on par with the FAB-500 bomb, which carries around 200kg with stated TNT equivalent of about 300kg. The truck explosion on that bridge last year was estimated at around 10 tons TNT equivalent, it barely shifted a couple slabs, and was fixed within weeks.
Using sea drones to take out supports might be a better idea, they’re at least considerably cheaper.
Has anyone built a sea drone that can fire thomahawks yet? There’s a different variant for every conceivable purpose, they could do a LOT of damage that way and then aim the drone at a nearby ship or port to self destruct
Having barely gotten a whiff of what DARPA does, absolutely yes
You want to move the most expensive western missiles into range of the cheapest Russian artillery?
Oh, you’re right. Wouldn’t want to use any of that nice military hardware - OPFOR might scratch it.
Ideally, you use the very expensive long range artillery at long range.
You don’t run it right up to the front line so the opposition can hit it with a big rock fired out of a catapult that costs a fraction as much.
I mean, yeah, ideally, but war is anything and everything but ideal. Even moreso when your logistics are as constrained and inconsistent as what Ukraine’s been dealing with for the last 6-8 months due to political fuckery.
What’s the significance e of the Kerch bridge
only land bridge from actual Russia to Crimea - isolates Crimea from support/reinforcements & supplies
It’s less critical now, but Kerch is still a very valuable supply artery that doesn’t have to go through the Donbas and the higher risk of Ukrainian strikes.
It’s one of Russia’s main supply arteries into Ukraine. They built it after they invaded Crimea back in 2014.