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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Ukraine needs longer-range weapons to boost Ukraine's counteroffensive as Russia modifies its strategy to evade the impact of HIMARS strikes, former Ukrainian marine and captured British fighter Aiden Aslin told Newsweek.
Kyiv's forces need more long-range cruise missiles to be able to target Russian supply bases and depots, said Aslin, a Briton who trained with Ukraine's marines before the outbreak of all-out war in 2022 and was captured by pro-Russian forces in the southern port city of Mariupol in April of that year.
Russian forces have "adapted" to Ukraine's strategy of using HIMARS to strike key locations, he told Newsweek.
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Ukraine has been using U.S.-provided HIMARS, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, since June 2022, with analysts and officials lauding their performance on the battlefield. To date, Washington has sent 38 HIMARS to Ukraine, and Kyiv has previously published footage showing the weapon in action.
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But the range of Ukraine's HIMARS rockets is limited. In May, the U.K. said it was sending its Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine, followed in mid-July by pledges from France for its version of the missiles, SCALP. The Anglo-French missiles have an estimated range of in excess of 155 miles, around triple that of the rockets provided for Ukraine's HIMARS.
Pressure is also building on Germany to furnish Ukraine with its long-range Taurus missiles, although Berlin has not yet committed to this.
Long-range missiles are typically used to strike hardened targets or bunkers and command centers, although they are also useful to have in Ukraine's arsenal for targeting key infrastructure, such as bridges.
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Experts argued that when the U.K. announced the delivery of Storm Shadow missiles Russia would have to re-evaluate where it placed its strategic assets and command bases, which would suddenly be within Kyiv's reach. Combined with weapons such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) and HIMARS, the Storm Shadow means Russia will "have to think much more deeply about the range at which the Ukrainians can strike back against them," David Jordan, co-director of the Freeman Air and Space Institute at King's College London told Newsweek in mid-May.
Now, more than 18 months into Ukraine's war against Russia, Moscow is hoarding its battlefield resources "further away, out of HIMARS range," Aslin said.
HIMARS have "been doing lots of good work" in the many months Ukraine has operated the system, Aslin said, but "we're now at the point where Russia has adapted to our strategy."
Ukraine needs more long-range capabilities like Storm Shadow, added Aslin, who has recently returned to Ukraine and published a new book, Putin's Prisoner, focusing on his time in captivity in eastern Ukraine.
Experts say the real advantage of sending different long-range missiles lies not in their individual capabilities, but in the numbers. The more missiles Kyiv can get its hands on, the more chances they have to strike Russian targets and the more damage they can do.
The U.S. has held off on approving the transfer of its ATACMS, or Army Tactical Missile Systems, which have a similar range to the cruise missiles already in Ukraine's hands. The surface-to-surface ATACMS are faster than Storm Shadow or SCALP, so more suited to time-sensitive targets, and don't need to be launched from one of Ukraine's limited number of combat aircraft.
ATACMS have a range around 30 miles greater than Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles, and as long as Kyiv's intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance can operate at that distance, Ukraine will have a slightly extended reach, Ed Arnold, a research fellow in European security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, told Newsweek in July.
"However, the main benefit is not range but simply capacity," Arnold added.
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