MGM-140 ATACMS

We will find out in due course no doubt, but for now it's thought that this is the first publicly confirmed report of the combat use of the missile after it finished final testing earlier this month.

The Pelican is Ukraine's answer to dwindling stocks and pledges of US-made ATACMS missiles.

Now, you can probably guess the response from Moscow, but just for the historical record, Russia's defense ministry said in response to the Kyiv regime's attacks on civilian targets within Russia, the Russian army will continue and intensify its high accuracy strikes against military targets in Kyiv.

I'm only surprised they didn't call the strikes terrorism, but do watch out for lazy journalism talking about Russian revenge attacks in the coming days.

[laughs] Not surprised at all

... you know, I'm, I'm one, you've probably heard me many times, you know, I was, I was screaming years ago about the ATACMS missiles and, you know, uh, and that we weren't giving, uh, the Ukrainians enough.

So this is the Ukrainians taking it to, to the, the heart of Russia, to Moscow, at a time where there's parliamentary elections.

Let's not forget there's some symbolism here.

So you, y- He should have said from day one, "Mr.

President, I could drop every bomb in our inventory, all the JASSMs, long range cruise missiles, the Tomahawks, uh, uh, JDAM, small diameter bombs, uh, ATACMS.

You can throw everything in there, all the bombs that we have, and they're not gonna blow up a mountain.

We just can't do it.

So basically, weapons that would be potentially used to deter Russia and China were being pulled into CENTCOM to fight the Iran war.

And they were running very, very low on all kinds of long-range weapons, including ATACMS, precision strike missiles, Tomahawks, um, the Patriot supply is low, and of course, our defense industrial base is not up to speed.

So you keep hearing these projections from the defense companies saying, "We're gonna produce, you know, these huge numbers." It's not actually the case.

So you're seeing some instances where they're using, you know, a month supply of Patriots in terms of the production in a day or two of heavy fighting.

No, it'll be escalatory.

Okay, you know, you can have ATACMS," or, "Okay, you can have, uh, you know, HIMARS," right? And there's this pattern of one system after another that they felt like they needed in real time that we provided late and slow.

And so while the overall assistance was extremely robust, uh, a lot of lag time happened, uh, during which time a lot of people at the front got killed or things couldn't progress as quickly as they could.

I'm curious how you evaluate that aspect of the Ukrainian critique of, of American policy.

But here are the numbers that actually shocked me.

The Wall Street Journal reported that American weapons stockpiles in Europe, PAC-3 Patriot Portrill missiles and ATACMS long-range missiles are now at what the report describes as beyond critical levels.

To replenish them, the United States must place new orders from Japan, South Korea, and Germany, a process that could take years.

And then there are two specific data points that I want you to write down.

So where are you even going to launch the ground invasion from? All of our bases are destroyed.

And here's another thing, what I think they're going to try to do if he does put boots on the ground, what he's going to try to do is he's going to try to take ground on the near Karga Island and on the Strait of Hormuz through that coastline to try to bring in things like HIMARS and ATACMS to maybe, you know, target and knock down Iranian drone and ballistic missile capabilities that are engaging in the Strait of Hormuz.

Well, OK, let's say you do that.

Alex, let's say that's successful.

It's to their advantage in that front.

So to continue to supply Iran with interceptors or munitions or missiles or intelligence to keep the United States expending all of those critical interceptors and ATACOMs.

I'll tell you, I was still in the army when the United States first considered giving Ukraine ATACOMs, the Army Tactical Missile System.

And Russia saw that as – at the time, almost as a red line, like, no, you're not giving Ukraine the eight hackums.

That's a red line.

We pushed the envelope, and eventually Trump did.

And that's been devastating on the front lines.

But if Russia can now force the United States to have to use those in Iran, which we have, we've expended almost all of our ATACOMs on strikes against Iran now.