Ukraine’s Mid-Range Strikes are Wrecking Russian Air Defense and Logistics. Here’s How | Fronts
AI Analysis
Ukraine is increasingly employing "mid-range strikes" – attacks beyond artillery range but short of long-range missiles – targeting Russian air defenses, logistics, and command centers. This capability initially relied on HIMARS provided by the US, but is now expanding through the proliferation of drones due to limitations on HIMARS usage and target hardening. These strikes are disrupting Russian operations and potentially weakening their overall war effort.
Key Takeaways
- Ukraine has developed a 'mid-range strike' capability, filling the gap between artillery and long-range missile systems.
- Initial mid-range strikes were enabled by US-supplied HIMARS and GMLRS rockets, successfully targeting Russian ammunition depots.
- Russian tactics of deploying large, close-to-frontline ammunition depots proved vulnerable to precision strikes.
- Increased drone activity is forcing HIMARS to operate further from the front lines, necessitating a shift towards drone-based mid-range strike solutions.
- Restrictions on HIMARS usage by donor nations are driving the development of indigenous drone-based strike capabilities.
Why It Matters
The expansion of Ukraine’s mid-range strike capability significantly degrades Russia’s ability to sustain operations in Ukraine by disrupting logistics and command structures. This demonstrates the growing importance of drones in modern warfare and the adaptability of Ukrainian forces in overcoming limitations imposed by weapon system restrictions. Successful implementation of this strategy could impact the long-term trajectory of the conflict.
**If you follow the Ukraine War closely, you have likely noticed the recent spike in reports of Russian air defenses and logistics coming under fire, especially along the roads resupplying the occupied southern regions of Ukraine. These reports are among the clearest indicators of Ukraine's unfolding mid-range strike campaign.
While various drone strikes have long been a staple of the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces, a lack of resources meant that such mid-range strikes hitting Russian targets in operational depth used to be relatively rare. Today, though, these drones are multiplying in number and now pose a significant threat to Russian forces in and around Ukraine. What follows is a quick primer on this new Ukrainian capability... and the danger it might pose to the Kremlin's overall war effort going forward.
What are “mid-range strikes”?
The so-called mid-range strikes represent the systematic use of assets capable of hitting enemy targets farther than the reach of long-range artillery (around 40-50km) and less than long-range strike capabilities (usually 200-300 km or more, historically the territory of cruise and ballistic missiles), and they usually target enemy critical support assets like air defenses, logistics, unit HQs, etc.
The Evolution of Ukrainian “Mid-Range Strike” Capabilities
When Russia started its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian military only had a relatively small number of Soviet-era Tochka ballistic missiles that were capable of mid-range strike. While they were able to achieve some successes with them, it was clear that launching old out-of-production missiles wouldn’t help Ukraine much with hitting Russian targets beyond the range of its artillery - especially since the Air Force needed to focus on survival and supporting air defense.
Fortunately, the Russian military was still employing Soviet-era practices that had become dangerous in the era of mass-manufactured long-range precision munitions, such as deploying large ammo depots close to the front. By the summer of 2022, the US government had started supplying Ukraine with HIMARS rocket launchers and a significant number of GMLRS rockets. GMLRS rockets have a range of around 85km, which enabled the first true Ukrainian ”mid-range strike” campaign, famously destroying many of these large Russian ammo depots (likely containing millions of pieces of large-caliber munitions) and thereby significantly reducing Russia’s artillery superiority.
Since that time, the battlefield in Ukraine has become so drone-infested that systems like HIMARS have had to pull back farther from the frontline, while valuable Russian targets have also largely disappeared from the immediate vicinity (but not before taking significant losses from large numbers of drone-adjusted HIMARS strikes). Ukraine has also had to struggle under restrictions placed by donor nations on how and where weapons like HIMARS can be used. So, a new, local solution was needed.
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