VIGIL CONSILIUM
Context. Not headlines.
Equipment catalogue · shared across conflicts

Missile / precision strike · Ground-launched ballistic missile fired from HIMARS and M270

MGM-140 ATACMS

The American ballistic missile fired from HIMARS that extended Ukraine's reach to airfields, air-defence sites and depots across the occupied south and Crimea — and the weapon whose supply and targeting rules made it a proxy for the whole US policy debate.

ATACMS United States US service from 1991; supplied to Ukraine from October 2023

Status as of
2026-03
Last reviewed
2026-09-28

AssessmentHigh confidence

Recognition context, not a stat sheet. The catalogue covers major publicly documented systems relevant to the conflicts Vigil covers — not an exhaustive order of battle. No quantities, availability or current allocations are recorded.

The record What this system is, where it comes from, who operates it and which of Vigil’s modules it is relevant to — with the evidence each of those rests on.

Fielded Evidence: Confirmed
Silhouette · not to scale

Record

FamilyATACMS
VariantsM39 (cluster warhead; short range); M39A1; M48 / M57 (unitary warhead; 300 km class)
OriginUnited States
ManufacturerLockheed Martin
EraUS service from 1991; supplied to Ukraine from October 2023
Appears inUkraine–Russia

Conflict relevance

This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.

Ukraine–Russia · Force Atlas

Operators

Ukraine · Secondary operator

Ukraine: Short-range cluster-warhead rounds supplied from October 2023 and the 300 km class from spring 2024, fired from the HIMARS and M270 launchers already in service. Quantities are not published and are not stated here.

DonorsUnited States

Battlefield role

Long-range precision strike against fixed, time-sensitive targets — airfields, air-defence batteries, headquarters and depots — from the same launchers that fire guided rockets, at ranges the rockets cannot reach.

Strengths

A ballistic trajectory and short flight time that give air defences little warning, a cluster warhead effective against parked aircraft and soft targets in the open, and launch from an existing, mobile fleet with no new platform to introduce.

Limitations

A finite US stock of a missile no longer in production, released in tranches under political conditions and with targeting inside Russia restricted until November 2024; the supply interruption of 2023–24 and the low estimated remaining stock in late 2024 are the published shape of the constraint. The number remaining is not public.

Visual identification

Not visible as such: a single large round in a HIMARS pod that otherwise carries six guided rockets; identified in practice from launch footage and from cluster-submunition debris.

Documented conflict use

In documented Ukrainian use since the October 2023 strikes on airfields at Berdiansk and Luhansk; the 300 km class used against Crimean airfields and air-defence sites from spring 2024; the first strikes into Russia in November 2024 after the US decision; and, according to reporting in 2026, a strike with SCALP-EG on a launch site near Donetsk airport on 7 March 2026. Stock estimates circulating in reporting are not reproduced here.

Full Confidence: High Sources: Official government statements · Established international media reporting · Ukrainian military and General Staff statements · ISW campaign assessments↗ · Oryx visually-confirmed equipment documentation↗ Methodology Corrections

Assessed as of — 2026-03 Last reviewed — 2026-09-28