After 5 Months, Russia Hasn’t Smashed a Single HIMARS Rocket Truck
Half a year after their introduction, Russia has been unable to destroy any HIMARS rocket trucks.
The trucks have destroyed artillery and supply depots, savaging Russia’s logistics.
In effect, this has rotted the Russian Ground Forces from within, weakening its grip on eastern Ukraine.
Twenty-six out of 26: That’s how many American-made HIMARS rocket trucks Ukraine still has in operation five months after their introduction, despite doling out incredible amounts of precision-guided destruction. This tiny fleet has evaded Russian forces even though the Kremlin considers it a high-priority target, and even though it was likely a major factor in Russia’s abandonment of the Kherson region this week.
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The first HIMARS arrived in Ukraine on June 23, one of just four such trucks. Ukrainian forces quickly put them to work, blasting away at Russian ammunition dumps, with the goal to gradually starve Russia’s artillery of shells. At one point, Ukrainian intelligence warned that Russian forces were firing up to 50,000 shells daily, with just 5,000 Ukrainian shells headed in the opposite direction. This was contributing to heavy casualties, killing 200 of Ukraine’s defenders a day.
The M142 HIMARS is an armored truck fitted to transport and launch up to six long-range artillery rockets at a time. The trucks fire Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS), a thirteen-foot-long rocket with a 43-mile range, 200-pound high-explosive warhead, and 160,000 preformed tungsten fragments. Each rocket is accurate to within six feet of the target, giving it unparalleled battlefield accuracy.
GMLRS’s combination of range, accuracy, and terrifying destructive power, paired with the speed and mobility of a truck platform, has made it a dangerous enemy for Russia. The trucks are used to launch hit-and-run raids, driving up to the front from Ukraine’s interior to give the rockets a maximum range advantage. Firing takes just a few minutes, and by the time the rockets have reached their targets, the trucks have already retreated.
Russian losses to this dynamic duo of HIMARS/GMLRS have been so serious that seeking them out and destroying them became a high priority. Russian government officials and propagandists, eager to tamp down a public relations crisis, have claimed Russia has destroyed many HIMARS systems. A senior U.S. defense official, however, told Politico last week that not a single truck has been destroyed.
GMLRS launches are often timed to coincide with launches of unguided Grad rockets, and this is meant to cause confusion among Russian artillery detecting groups. Ukrainian troops also practice strict operational security with their HIMARS, preventing them from being photographed with any identifying landmarks or anything else that would give their position away. The trucks also likely travel with their own escorts, especially so-called counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS), weapons designed to detect and jam Russian drones like the Iranian-made Shahed-136 and the Lancet-3. (Lancet-3 recently scored several successes against Ukrainian artillery pieces, but the attacks have mysteriously dropped off.)
The fact that Ukraine’s force of 28 HIMARS is still rolling on Ukraine’s highways and releasing volleys of deadly accurate rockets is a testament to their cunning—and yet another major failure by Russia in a war already rife with failure.
Russia will eventually get lucky and knock off a HIMARS truck, but that probably won’t happen today.
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