Will US and NATO Allies Get Ukraine Long Range Rockets?

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

The ability to target and kill with precision from long distances on flat, open plains in Eastern Ukraine is what the Ukrainian forces say they most need.

“What’s going on on the ground right now is a very artillery heavy, long-range fire heavy fighting in the Donbas,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters, according to a transcript.

Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS)

Not surprisingly, the Pentagon is working intensely to get them for Ukrainian fighters. Several months ago, President Zelensky told CNN he wanted Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) among other things. 

This request makes a lot of sense for a number of key reasons, a principle one being the need to attack and destroy Russian missile and rocket launchers. Many of Russia’s known rocket systems, which continue to kill civilians, wreak havoc and decimate entire communities operate with mobile launchers and could be tough to pinpoint and attack. Most of all, the launchers are simply too far away to be attacked at close range, given that many of the Russian rockets travel several hundreds of miles to their targets.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US continues to work with allies to respond to Ukrainian needs and put support packages together.

“As we work these packages, these weapons and systems that were sent to Ukraine, I mean, we’re doing it mostly with an eye towards what does Ukraine need in the fight that they’re in right now? And the — and the consistent answer that we get back is they need long range fires, because the terrain in the Donbas region, that kind of fighting that they’re doing is heavily reliant on that,” Kirby told reporters.