Key terminology on Long- and Short-range Missiles
Old friend and Ukrainian patriot, Andrew Kinsel, clarified a key point in terminology about Ukrainian and Russian missiles which are confusing the terms of the debate in the War for Ukrainian Sovereignty.
Numerous news articles have called the ATACMS: “long-range” tactical ballistic missiles.
See:
NPR: The U.S. confirms Ukraine fired long-range ATACMS into Russia for the 1st time
CNN: Ukraine fires US-made longer-range missiles into Russia for the first time
In fact, the ATACMS are not long-range and have maximum range of 300km (186 miles)
BBC: The Army Tactical Missile System is a surface-to-surface ballistic missile capable of hitting targets at up to 300km (186 miles). This longer range makes them particularly important for Ukraine.
In contrast, the Russian Iskander has a range of 500km (310 miles) is normally labelled as a short-range ballistic missile.
ODIN (Official US Army Weapons Data-base: The Iskander (Western reporting name SS-26 Stone) short-range ballistic missile is a successor to the Oka (SS-23 Spider), which was eliminated under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.
Center for Strategic Studies: The 9K720 Iskander (NATO: SS-26 “Stone”) is a road-mobile short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) with a range of up to 500 km.
The Russian military specifically target and bomb civilians in Kyiv and Lviv with Iskanders.
In contrast, Ukraine can not bomb Moscow, St. Petersburg or other Russian cities with ATACAMS. They are beyond the range of these missiles.
To quote Andrew:
ATACMS and Storm Shadow are tactical weapon to hit near front staging areas and arms depots. Ukraine CANNOT hit the airforce bases that Russia is using to stage rocket attacks against Ukraine with the ATACMS or Storm Shadow.
Please call the ATACMS: “battle front weapons”or "short-range" or tactical missiles just not long-range.
Incorrect language concerning ATACMS allows people to mistakenly believe that President Biden gave Ukraine the ability to strike deep in Russia and “escalate”, the fighting when he did not.
Let’s ensure sloppy language does not inadvertently make an equivalence between the short-range battle-front weapons, such as ATACMS, that Ukraine uses to hit near-by military bases and targets to the long-range missiles that Russia uses to target civilians.
Thanks to Andrew Kinsel, director KinselandCo.com.