Rockets fired from HIMARS or High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems have struck
hundreds of Russian targets in Ukraine, including ammunition depots and command and control posts.
These strikes have restricted Russia's war-fighting capabilities.
The impact is so significant that Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Shoigu has ordered his forces to prioritize destroying them.
But things have not gone according to plan for Russia.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how Ukraine is tricking Russia into using precious precision
weapons to destroy fake HIMARS? Let's get started.
HIMARS has one universal pod that can accommodate one MGM-140 ATACMS
or 6 unguided/guided missiles of 227 mm caliber.
While ATACMS that have a range of 186 miles or 300 km have not been provided to Ukraine,
GMLRS or Guided Multi Launch Rocket System supplied to the
country have provided excellent results. GMLRS can reach a land target at a maximum range
of 46 miles or 75 km and have a reliability rating exceeding 98 % for a CEP of 10 m.
The Washington Post reported Ukraine is using wooden decoys made to look like rocket launchers
to trick Russia into wasting its missiles on them.
The decoys are made of wood but look like HIMARS when spotted by Russia's drones.
The drones then send the location of the dummy launchers to Russia's cruise missile
carriers in the Black Sea, prompting the carriers to fire — but on useless targets.
The report was based on interviews with senior US and
Ukrainian officials and photos of the wooden decoys have also been accessed.
The Washington Post reported, citing a senior Ukrainian official, that Russia used at least
10 Kalibr cruise missiles in the first weeks of Ukraine trying the strategy.
Kalibr is an expensive and potent weapon.
Some variants of Kalibr are equivalent to the American Tomahawk cruise missile
in many parameters such as range, warhead, and propulsion.
These have a range of 2,500 km or 1,554 miles , are equipped with a 450 kg or 1000
pound high-explosive warhead and have a speed of Mach 0.8.
Russian Ministry of Defense stated in a daily briefing,
that between July 5-20, "four launchers and one reloading
vehicle for the U.S.-made multiple launch rocket systems (HIMARS) were destroyed,"
A Russian MOD Telegram post said two of these were taken out in Malotaranovka
in the Donbas along with two ammunition depots for the weapon.
More such claims have been made since then.
These claims have been rejected by both Kyiv and Washington.
The Washington Post noted that the dummy systems may have been behind
Russia's claim that it had destroyed some HIMARS, even though Ukraine denies it and
the US says all HIMARS are accounted for, working, and still in Ukrainian hands.
Ukraine's defense at this stage is mostly being mounted using
western supplied weapons and HIMARS is turning out to be one of the most effective ones.
Earlier, in comments on national television, Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov
underlined the growing impact that the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems
(HIMARS) are having as Ukraine tries to repel Russia's invasion.
Reznikov said,
"This cuts their (Russian) logistical chains and takes away their ability
to conduct active fighting and cover our armed forces with heavy shelling,"
It is well known that Russia is running low when it comes to precision weapons like the Kalibr
and will find it difficult to replenish the stocks because of sanctions on Russia
that prevent it from acquiring Chip needed for these weapons.
It is clear that out-of-box thinking from Ukrainians is
playing a crucial role in this conflict.