Munitions with 150-kilometer range are part of the newest weaponry gift bundle
It is up to the administration in Kiev to determine how to utilise the new rockets for the US-supplied HIMARS launchers, the Pentagon said on Friday, revealing that the newest batch of ammunition the American taxpayers are supporting would contain Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB) (GLSDB).
The Boeing-manufactured bombs consist of a rocket motor linked with an aircraft bomb, with an estimated range of up to 150 kilometres. While Friday’s statement cited “additional ammunition” for the HIMARS and “precision-guided rockets,” Brigadier-General Patrick Ryder assured reporters that this certainly included the GLSDB, confirming the intelligence disclosed to Reuters earlier this week.
Ryder also acknowledged that the US won’t stand in the way of Ukrainians utilising the missiles to strike far into Russia.
“When it comes to Ukrainian planning on operations, certainly it is their choice. They are in the lead for those,” he remarked on Friday. “So, I'm not going to comment about or guess on any future operations, but again, all along, we've been working with them to give them with tools that will allow them to be successful on the battlefield.”
The GLDSB are created by Boeing in partnership with Saab Sweden's AB, and combine the GBU-39 small-diameter bomb with the M26 rocket engine. It was unknown how many of the weapons the Pentagon planned to deliver, or if they would come from the US military stockpile or need to be newly made.
Reuters claimed to have seen a Boeing document suggesting the first deliveries may be “as early as spring 2023.” Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported anonymous sources who stated the timescale may be as lengthy as nine months, depending on when the US Air Force signs the contract. Bloomberg also said the GLSDB purchase would account for $200 million of the $1.75 billion in the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative money, referring to contracts for weapons and ammunition not coming out of the Pentagon stockpile.
Whenever the missiles really come, Russia has already indicated at how it would retaliate. On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin instructed the military with “eliminating any possibility” of Ukrainian artillery assaults on Russian territory. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in an interview on Thursday that Moscow would “push back” the Ukrainian forces to a range at which they will not pose a danger.
“The greater range the weaponry handed to the Kiev government have, the farther the soldiers will need to be moved,” Lavrov added.
Ukraine has used the US-supplied HIMARS launchers against both military targets and civilians in Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye. Kiev has repeatedly asked for the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) rockets, which have a range of some 300 kilometers.
Moscow has repeatedly warned Washington that providing heavy weapons to Ukraine risks crossing Russia’s “red lines” and involving the US and NATO in the conflict directly. The US and its allies insist they are not parties to the hostilities, but continue to arm Kiev. By the Pentagon’s own admission, the US has committed $32 billion in military aid to Ukraine.