What is ATACMS and Why is it Important to Ukraine?

This video is an educational video explaining the creation of ATACMS and how it might be used in Ukraine. No combat footage was used, only test footage that is available from the Department of Defense.

The MGM-140 ATACMS is s a short-range ballistic missile designed to give the battlefield commander options to quickly engage Time Sensitive Targets (TSTs). The weapons can be fired from the M270 MRLS or M142 HIMARS.

There are five versions:
M39 - Cluster munition
M39A1 - Cluster Munition
M48 - Unitary
M57 - Unitary
M57A1 - Unitary

It is possible that the M39 or M39A1 will be sent to Ukraine.

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[SamAronow]

ATACMS is important because it's the best DEFNSMS.

[joelb]

As a USAF retiree i am deeply offended by your honesty. The chair force is a great life when grunts aren't interrupting our nap time. Bless you brother

[tayzonday]

ATACMS would be great for Amazon deliveries, just give them air bag landers like the Mars rovers 🤔

[freekeefox]

Oh my god, did you make that whole Denny's menu graphic just for this episode? That is a hilariously fantastic graphic. I had to pause the video just to appreciate it.

[georgehooper]

Ryan, I just wanted to tell you that you are a great story teller, with entertaining content that draws the viewer into your topic. Well done!! I enjoy all of the content you create.

[brianjaber]

“And you don’t have to interrupt the AF’s golf game”. I laughed to the end of the video. I was Navy aviation but getting up meant you’d planned for a week before. Not much difference on the front end of aviation ops Navy or AF, hey it just takes planning. But I love the golf reference.

[BruceThaJuiceBanner]

1300 views in 13 min? Keep on killin it ryan, the information you provide to the community is truly invaluable!

[patavinity]

I think it's easy to mock ideas such as the 'pentomic army', but it's important to remember that we have the advantage of hindsight. Today there is a considerable taboo against the use of atomic weapons in warfare, but back then, there was no reason to think that it wouldn't become a commonly-used weapon of war. When push comes to shove the armed forces have to be prepared to deal with that.

[Kishandreth]

ATACMS have already presented a dilemma to Russia. Either they keep their supply hubs and upper command centers far enough away, or they could possibly be wiped out after Ukraine is secretly given ATACMS. While ATACMS may have a shorter range then a storm shadow missile, it is much easier to see a plane taking off then a missile being fired.

At the end of the day ATACMS provide versatility. In warfare, versatility is a good things. Being able to strike multiple potential targets a multitude of ways is a lot better then trying to figure out something in order to strike a specific target.

[Fuck_whoever_took_my_name]

As someone who had never played golf until I was bored on my Air Force base, I find your comments offensively accurate

[Paladin]

My dear Ryan, if you call the Air Force at night, you don't get us out of bed. You get us out of the bar.

[PamelaContiGlass]

Well, well, well! Thank you for the history lesson on the ATACMS, the Lance and the Honest John. There is so little about the Lance online (and less about the Honest John), yet it was an important Cold War weapon. If nothing else because it could carry a Nuke!

I was a Second Lieutenant in a the "Terzo Gruppo Missili Volturno" based in Oderzo, italy (a few miles north of Venice). My job was to command a lance Missile Section. Apparently I was good at it because at some point I got some kind of award bestowed on me by a US Army Colonel during the NATO maneuvers in 1979 (I think. My memory gets fuzzier by the day).

Hilariously, the Colonel was so very impressed by my team's skills, that he didn't notice when I kicked the Theodolite completely out of alignment in the effort of saluting him when I realized he had snuck right behind me.
He startled me, I sprang to attention and I kicked the Theodolite leg. Somehow, the leg landed right back into the hole it made. God only knows where that missile would have landed. Vienna? Trieste?
What I do remember is that the career junior officers were furious (I was essentially a draftee that took the Officer's test, or "Officiale di Complemento") and that it cost me the modern equivalent of about $1200 in drinks at the officer's club.
For some reason, you buy drinks when you screw up, but you also buy drinks when you do something right. I suspect that buying drinks is the constant in all the unwritten rules.

Speaking of which, I am in the process of writing an article on how I almost managed to get Court Martialed when I attended a Lance live fire exercise in Sardinia. They didn't want to send me, because I wasn't a career officer, so I made a deal and paid for my own transportation and took my vacation time so I could see this missile being launched. Because no good deed goes unpunished, I almost went to jail for not saluting the Italian Armed Forces Joint Chief (I actually did, but me and another two junior officers were essentially walking on our toes to get out of the room and I was caught).

Anyway, good times and thank you for the Lance mention.

[cornbreadreturns]

Ryan's laugh at 1:23 is the laugh of a man that has experience asking the Airforce for things lol

[wtl]

Ukraine needs and deserves help.
Let's not forget Memorandum of Budapest (1994) 💛💙

[sidewinderdrums]

Once again, great video. You mentioned the US testing battlefield nukes years ago - my dad was one of those troops who marched through the blast area right after the explosion (atomic cannon "Atomic Annie" test in Nevada back in the early 50's).

[Tezunegari]

Attack hams? Sounds deliciously deadly.

[syntheretique]

"In the US we like to have our fill before giving leftovers." When it comes to donation to Ukraine this has been true of most countries, hasn't it? Even obsolete or near obsolete airplanes are still useful for training and giving them could mean lowering yearly flight hours of your own crews. That's a difficult pill to swallow for air forces even if the politics push hard.

I find the quips toward USAF fascinating and hilarious. I heard similar things in France about Armée de l'Air but nothing as ferocious :D

[joso]

Good analysis. The ATACMS, especially the submunitions dispenser payload version, is indeed quite a different tool from the Scalp/StormShadow.

[hunterrichardson]

My son is 14, he loves military history, strategy, etc. We watch your videos at night when we get a chance to sit and relax and then talk about what was learned. Thank you, for always delivering great videos. I look forward to watching this with him tonight.

[DigitalDoomLoL]

2:23 Awesome to see my hometown of Aschaffenburg mentioned on the Infantry Division layout. Although the US Army was gone when I was 2 years old, so I never really experienced their presence. But you can still see the marks they left in the city to this day.