Joe Biden’s ATACMS Missile Call Looks Like a Big Mistake

ATAMCS: The Biden Administration Is Allowing Ukraine to Make Long-range Missile Strikes Into Russia – To wring all the military strategy gambits out of the United States to help Ukraine before he steps down from the Oval Office, President Joe Biden has now allowed long-range strikes against Russia from a missile system known as ATACMS.

This is a big call. As President-elect Donald Trump waits in the wings to take over as commander-in-chief in January, Biden decided on a bold policy shift. The ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) will be used against targets in the Kursk region of western Russia, where Vladimir Putin’s forces are trying to dislodge the Ukrainian ground troops that have made an earlier incursion into Kursk.

What does that mean, and what will happen next in the Ukraine war?

North Korean Soldiers Targeted

ATACMS will also be deployed against North Korean forces sent by Kim Jong Un to bolster Russia’s effort to take back territory occupied by Ukraine. The decision comes as Trump has already promised to end the war. The former president may also have plans to stop military aid to Ukraine.

Zelensky Believes This Is a Key to Victory

The United States had previously allowed Ukraine to use HIMARS missiles against targets in Russia. However, HIMARS can only hit targets 50 miles across the border, while ATACMS has a greater range of 190 miles. Allowing long-range strikes using ATACMS is one of the tactics in Volodymyr Zelensky’s “Victory Plan.”

While the Biden administration has admitted the ATACMS decision is not likely to change the outcome of the war, his war cabinet believes that it will send a message to Pyongyang to refrain from sending more North Korean troops to battle the Ukrainians.

What’s the Next Step for Russia?

However, the ATACMS deployment for long-range strikes could send Putin into a tizzy and encourage him to attack NATO members in some way. This is why the Biden administration was not completely in agreement with the policy shift allowing ATACMS to launch attacks.

Meanwhile, Russia has massed at least 50,000 troops, including about 10,000 North Koreans, to hit back against Ukrainian positions in Kursk.

“The Ukrainians could use the ATACMS missiles to strike Russian and North Korean troop concentrations, key pieces of military equipment, logistics nodes, ammunition depots and supply lines deep inside Russia,” according to the New York Times.

Quick Look at ATACMS

The ATCAMS ballistic surface-to-surface missile is 13 feet long and 2 feet wide and weighs 3,700 pounds. It can be used against moving targets or stationary facilities. The inertial guidance system utilizes GPS for targeting. The ATACMS boasts a high-explosive penetrating warhead or fragmentary blast warhead and can also contain cluster munitions. It can be launched from existing HIMARS mobile launchers located in Ukraine.

Another Example of Flawed Defense Policy from Biden

The ATACMS deployment is problematic for several reasons. The election win by Trump signaled the electorate wanted a change in foreign policy. That means many voters preferred that aid to Ukraine be curtailed and that a significant number of Trump supporters did not favor tactics that would shift toward a more muscular and escalatory response against Russia. Critics of the new policy point toward the war becoming even more difficult to end if Ukraine continues to fire ATACMS.

Also, Russia has already moved many of its military logistics facilities further into Russia to stay out of the range of HIMARS and ATACMS. Thus, the new policy to use longer-range missiles is not expected to change the balance of power in the war that has been in a stalemate for many months. This raises the question of why the Biden administration has changed the policy to allow ATACMS strikes if it doesn’t make a difference in the war.

Furthermore, this makes it more challenging for the Trump administration to get both sides to the negotiating table. Russia will see that the United States does not really want peace if it is allowing long-range strikes. Trump will likely change this policy but that will anger Ukraine and make it seem that America wants to capitulate against Russia.

Thus, this new policy of long-range strikes with ATACMS shows that the Biden administration has not completely thought through what this means for the future of the war. The Russians will be angry and could escalate the war and target NATO members with Moscow’s own long-range weapons. ATACMS is not expected to change the outcome of the conflict. And the missile’s use will make peace efforts more difficult.

This is another example of poor strategy and tactics from the Biden administration that will disadvantage Trump’s new defense team.

About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood

Brent M. Eastwood, PhD, is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare, plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.