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As someone who served as a HIMARS Operator; I can tell you that a well trained crew can easily fire off a full pod, stow the arm, and be able to drive a safe distance away well before those rockets even impact their target. the only limits a single HIMARS system really has (in terms of effectiveness), Is Ammo, and Fuel. Oh and air support, fighter jets are the biggest threat by far.

Im still shocked at how time efficient they've been. These dudes learned an entirely new system and then went apesh*t blowing stuff up for 4 days straight! Talk about hitting the ground running!

I'd say these proved very useful, and the ammo dump was a perfect example of how the HIMARS is actually being used. Russian logistics got a lot more complicated as a result.

I`m from Ukraine and it is hard to imagine how much impact these missiles have. Thank you very much for them! Friends from the front say that they stopped being shelled by artillery 24/7

We have hit around 50 targets during the last week using HIMARS: ammo depots and command units. Works just fine and helps to keep Russians from advancing) Edit: I’m not saying HIMARS will stop them completely, but we were able to halt them by destroying logistics and command chains(1 general and 2 colonel in Chernobaevka only). The amounts of artillery rounds fired per day decreased tremendously, too.

As a Ukrainian who knows some of the soldiers fighting on the battlefield and who monitors russian activity I can say that those 4 HIMARS systems already made a huge difference. Shelling in Donbass region shrinked more than twice after few ammo storages were destroyed. That is incredible. Think of it, in order to fire an artillery you need ammo but if ammo storage gets destroyed it will take a lot of time for command to make a new one then the train would carry ammunition which weights a lot to the nearest train station where a lot of trucks will transport the artillery rounds. It is complicated procces and knowing that russian millitary command is really disorganised recovering from one of those strikes might take them 10 or even more days. Now as the night starts I hope more ammo storages of russian army would be destroyed as well as more command units. Thanks for reading

Glad that history now shows and continues to show just how effective they are.

The info here is a little out dated already. They have confirmed to be receiving 16 HIMARS systems in total. The 4 you may be referring to are just the active HIMARS that already have their crews trained and ready for combat.

As a seasoned BF3/4 artillery player, I can say these are extremely effective.

Fun thing about the HIMARS is its gonna force Russia to pull its ammo depots bacj 84 kilometers away. And if they get the 300 km variant, they're gonna have to pull back even farther. Imagine being a supply officer, what are you gonna do when your ammo dumps are over 300 miles away from your unit.

The pod with a single rocket isn't an M26, it's an M57E1 ATACMS. The M26 was removed from the US inventory in 2009, Italy destroyed its stocks in 2015, the UK and Netherlands got rid of their stock in 2013 and Germany got rid of theirs in 2015. The current 6 round pod is the M31 ( M31A1, M31A2) which is a 200lb unitary warhead. The M26 could shoot out to 28m, the M31 out to 57.2m and the ATACMS out to 186m, since we've not heard of any rocket attacks in russia I'd say Ukraine only has M31's.

I was a HIMARS Crewman. I was in the first course given to Marines at Fort Sill and graduated top in that class. I have spent a lot of time with them and had a lot of fun experiences in them.

Before watching this I think the main thing the himars has is it’s ability to strike Russian logistical capabilities since the Russians moved back east they have been relying more on trains and with us and other western intelligence Ukraine has a pretty good idea where to hit to cause the most logistical damages to Russia. Blowing up ammo dumps has seemed to be its main use now

I was a driver and gunner in Iraq for the M270 MLRS, and yes, it will make a HUGE difference.

Hi, I'm from Ukraine. Yes, half a dozen of Himarses are making a huge difference now. This is a game changer in the whole theatre of war. Having some 20 of them will crush russian fascists' potential to attack and occupy more Ukrainian territories, let alone control already occupied territories. Thank you US for this. Just send 20 more

You're wrong. Each of the 6 GMLRs missiles can hit different targets. The US DoD representantive didn't speak about ATACMs, he spoke about GMLRS.

It would be super Interesting to see how much rocket artillery has evolved from World War Two, and the fact that the US is getting interested in them.

One commentator described the HIMARS impact thus: "The Ukrainians are basically going through all the Russian ammunition dumps with a big red marker." :)

They first hit ammo dump, bridges and airfields. They did already more damage than what they cost. Sounds pretty successful to me. You know what's expensive... That Russian flagship the Moskva Ukraine sunk. It was 750 million dollars! A fighter jet cost 30 million dollars. They lost 9 of those today. A Russian tank costs 3 million and the lost 1,677 of those already. The Ukraine have been very effective.

This has turned out to be wrong. Tbf, the US upped this to 18 units total so far, and it's had a crippling effect on Russian logistics when used. Not that Russian logistics where good before but HIMARS kills it dead in areas where it is used.

The HIMARS can also fire GPS guided anti tank rockets , several precision guided warheads break off from the rocket and can destroy multiple tanks/vehicles at once.

If we did this much with only 4 in stock, imagine what our military can do with 12 of them..? Hi from Ukraine! Thanks for your help.

Himars is totally making a difference, even with the limited units delivered. Never seen such a devastating impact from such a few weapons systems.

From what I've read the number of Himars systems currently sent to Ukraine (4) is very carefully calculated and orchestrated to fit within the current training pace, and also to fit within the current logistical pace. This is about the pace the US Army uses when it introduces new weapon-systems to itself. A tad slower to keep logistical lines open for stuff other than Himars missiles.

Himars is awesome weapons. Our army already destroyed several dozen of russian ammunition depots and command centers. Now we have 8 Himars and additional 4 on the way, also we are waiting for 9 M270 from Britain, Germany and Norway. 🇺🇦🇺🇲🇬🇧💪

It does make a difference in Ukraine: since these systems arrived, we enjoy news about 3-4 destroyed enemy weapon storage and command posts every day. The enemy artillery fire intensity went down at least 10 times because of that. If we had them a month ago, we would keep the Severodonetst and Lysychansk cities: the overwhelming rate of fire was the main and the only russia advantage on that part of the front.

The last sentence fo the video did not age well ;)

Incredible how some 4 to 8 units of these can make such a massive impact.

If they can be used for hitting Russian supply depots then they can make a huge difference to things. In any conflict, supply lines are critical to whether or not a force can hold their ground or advance. Destroy their supply lines and the enemy offensive will grind to a halt.

Poland are in the process of ordering 500 HIMARS, and like all European armoured vehicles, they migrate east this time of year.

That did not aged well .... Look like this few HIMARS made huge difference.

And that’s was lie, it makes a huge difference in the battle field .

Ukraine now has 8 HIMARS 142 systems and will be getting 4 more by August. They will also get 6 M270 systems by August. Those 18 systems are going to wreck havoc. It's almost certain that they will soon have more systems approved to be in in place by late August/September.

I'm so hoping they sent some of those M39 Block 1, with half the range of the A1. Nowhere in Ukraine's occupied territory would be safe for identified Russian supply and command posts. Btw, there're at least 8 HIMARS in the country and they have sent shock waves throughout the Russians. So much so that they're being forced to move logistic centers and command posts outside the range of these missiles. Which is where the M39 comes in...😄

I'm sure overall this has been a positive advertisement for HIMARS systems.If they are somewhat effective at a 50km, 80km range, imagine how powerful those systems would be with 500 km range rockets and in a larger quantity

Slight correction for minute 2: The Germans also made heavy use of rocket artillery during WW2. It is just the name that might be misleading - they were called "Nebelwerfer". The Germans even had self-propelled ones, such as the "Panzerwerfer 42".

I'm just glad to see the systems I spent my whole career on are actually being used for once

I think a key thing the HIMARS and other long range systems does is force the russians to move their ammo dumps and headquarters that much further back from the front. If the 'danger zone' goes from 30km to 70km from the front, that closes a LOT of land for that kind of high value target. Since they always struggle with logistics, more than doubling the logistics train distance will likely hurt their ability to sustain combat. I think the recent reduction in artillery activity shows this. They will eventually regroup and probably come back to near the previous level of attacks, but it will tie up a lot more troops and vehicles in moving stuff around. If they struggle to keep their soldiers fed now, imagine when all the big supply points are now more than twice as far back. As well as any kind of vehicle storage or repair points, they will need to be much further back from the front.

Yeah, you really underestimated HIMARS...

spoiler alert: it did

HiMars is a very robust and integrated weapon/data system. Its war yield isnt overly impressive but its data link pin point accuracy is Astounding when compared too Russian and Chinese counterparts.

The "grid square eliminator" was for a full volley of 12 rockets with ICM, not a single rocket.

TO CHRIS CAPPY, This is another very good video production by you. Well done! I watch for the valuable content, and appreciate you mention your sources, and that you show us graphics such as schematics and other images to illustrate the weapons you are discussing. But, I also enjoy your good sense of humor and the funny bits you add into the narration. Keep up the good work. I will share this on social media.

Haven't they sent 8 systems and promised 4 more already? Another question is how many volleys can one Himars realistically fire in one night while moving to a new position after each volley. I feel the number of rockets is more of a limiting factor than the actual launchers atm.

The UK did send over our MLRS surplus as well by the way, They are using both platforms. So they have best of both worlds anyway.

You're asking Can Himars make a diference? One russian war analyst said that if Ukraine would have get those 2 weeks earlier they most likely would not lose Severodoneck and Lisichansk. And that alone would be a huge diference.

Historical note: another reason the Soviets fielded so much rocket artillery is that they were the masters of the technology. From about 1890, the world's leaders in rocket science (literally lol) were the Russian mathematicians and scientists near Moscow. Book rec: This New Ocean by William E. Burroughs. Love the channel!

This videographer appears to me as a strong pessimist for a technology which has shown, already, to be EXTREMELY successful beyond wildest expectations. I simply do not understand his position on this issue. His take is that of a "johnny raincloud" that I would never want on my team for fear that he would suck the morale and winning team spirit right out of every member of my group. I suggest that he watch the morale speech at the beginning of the movie "Patton", to better understand the importance of a "winning attitude" and of faith in, and knowledge of, one's equipment, towards the winning of a battle. The Ukrainian soldiers demonstrate this incredible positive approach to winning, every day, with the results signed in blood.

If the Us/western allies or Ukrainian intelligence services are able to continue to get targeting info for key command and control sites as well as ammo dumps and key targets like bridges or other choke points, I think 8 to 12 of these units could be very consequential in the outcome of the war. It will be interesting to see how they affect things once they focus on counter battery operations as well. (especially with the counter battery/artillery detecting radar systems. Poland wants to buy 500 of these….

Your sister site, the drive/warzone, on it's Ukrainian Situation Report for today has an interesting tweet from Giorgi Revishvili highlighting the "HIMARS effect". Basically, Russian Rocket barrage tempo has fallen off drastically due to a lack of non explody ammo dumps.

3 week's later...... They, together with the British system (and within a few week's the German system that crew are being trained on) have made a massive difference. Having to move your ammunition (and fuel) store's further back due to being in range, mean's a longer log trail, hitting the train track's (ruSSia use's train's to move the vast quanity of store's) and bridge's mean's those truck's now need to drive further. Which mean's more fuel used (which mean's less fuel for MBT's etc) the driver's being more tired, more troop's needed to load and unload. It also mean's ruSSia is spending more time trying to find them, which mean's less time finding anything else. Do you spend time and valuable drone's finding himar or do you go looking for caesar/krab/pzh2000 (which are also making a difference)? You can also tell they are making a difference with how ruSSia (and it's troll's) respond's. From saying no difference, to having destroyed all of them or that at least.4 have been sold to them! So far none destroyed and none sold. No doubt some will get destroyed, it's war after all, but America will replace everyone 1 destroyed with 2. Is it a perfect weapon? Of course not, but is it proving it's worth? Oh yes.

That card trick part was so clean how you just put that in there that transition was so smooth👏👏👏

We have seen recently that the HIMAR most certainly are making a huge difference.

I was in the 2nd fielded MLRS ever and fought in Iraq 2 times. England is sending 10 M270, US says 4 more HIMRS are going finally Germany, France and Belgium are send M270 from the stored fleets.

Oh this video aged like gold. Do you regret making a video to completely embarass yourself by showing everyone you have no clue?

I have shot out of both the 270 and 142, definitely an interesting process to go through.

One thing I think this video misses is that Russian MLRS forces have no equivalent to the M31 rocket. The standard Grad rockets do not have the range or precision to counterbattery M31 armed HIMARS effectively. The only Russian MLRS that can match M31 in range are Smerch rockets, which are a completely different weight class.

They now have 8 and supposed to get four more. They've already used them to destroy multiple ammo dump, one big enough to register on seismometers in Sweden. It also apparently killed a of division & brigade level officers. The Ukrainians are using very effective shoot & scoot maneuvers, pre-positioning a pod of 6 rockets at a location, having them roll up, load, fire and then scoot to the next site.

It all depends on how they are used and protected from enemy fire or other damages. It must be taken in consideration that there is a lot of politics involved, one side overestimateing, while the other underestimateing the situation.

Again, informative and interesting, I also enjoy the dialogue it stimulates. I suspect that once again the key point as you have mentioned, is untested, so the powers that be will be very keen to test this. It will be interesting to see where this is placed in the military doctrine going forward. Appreciate the humour as always.

Can US HIMARS Rocket Artillery Make a Difference? Yes it can, and it does. Only thing that Ukrainian forces were lacking was long range precision weapon.

Don’t forget the older MRLS that the UK donated. I am sure they are in use also and they use the same rockets.

I remember thinking some years ago that it is the purpose of having in Finland only few dozens of modern multiple rocket launchers (compared to hundreds of traditional artillery), but it seems that there really is a purpose. (And we have also longer range missiles than in Ukraine)

Actually, the germans used a rocket artillery system similar to the russian one. I believe it was called Nebelwerfer, it was widelely employed in most theaters, and considered to be very effective, albeit vulnerable to counter-battery fire.

I'm from Ukraine! Thank you for your Himars!❤️

HIMARS is extremely accurate and each rocket can be programmed to hit a specific grid (individual small structures for example). If you can get a grid for it HIMARS can wreck it.

The fact that we are giving them these pieces likely shows that we may have something better than this and we aren't even showing the world. Or like what I saw a few years ago, we are likely employing artillery rockets that likely fires a drone that can hit a target from 250 miles away

As others have pointed out, Ukraine has been receiving significantly more HIMARS systems. 4 might not be a game changer, but 16 (along with several M270 systems that have twice the firepower) is another story. These systems have already been credited with stabilizing the front lines and dealing devastating blows to Russian command posts and ammunition depots, which strikes at the heart of the Russian war machine given its dependence on large, concentrated quantities of artillery ammunition. And given the quantity of HIMARS systems that the US possesses, it's definitely conceivable that the US is planning on sending many more, especially as they continue to demonstrate their devastating effectiveness on the battlefield.

I would just like to say that I really appreciate the effort you make with your video's. I am from the UK with zero military experience, but these are informative, entertaining and well researched. Keep up the good work sir 👍

This must be an old video. Ukraine now has 8 deployed, with 4 more on the way and longer range rockets too. And yes, it is being a game changer.

Sept. 8 "Our regiment has lost many men from the 'katyushi' which belch out terrible fire" Sept. 13 "An unlucky number. This morning 'katyushi' attacks caused the company heavy losses: twenty-seven dead and fifty wounded." Diary of a German Soldier, William Hoffman - Stalingrad

I bet you are eating your words now. HIMARS are making an impact as it seems like.

Given that the Russian are shooting less artillery I think the Himars are doing a real number on the ammo Depots.

Nice summary. I’m thinking the effects on Russian logistics may be greater than alluded to in this episode.

Are you planning on making another one of those your videos on the overall battle because I'm curious as to how it's been going but I don't use twitter and I'm not really smart enough to understand those sites that have supposed data from the conflict your my only source of info I trust

Didn't age well.

I remember that during both Golf Wars the Rocket Launchers would move up WAY into the range of enemy artillery, set up, all the various rocket launchers quickly fire their rockets at the same time (like within 10 seconds every rocket out there had been launched) and then quickly retreat. Basically a perfect example of "Shoot & Scoot" missions! I imagine that the Ukrainians are doing the same!!!

The Ukrainians seem to be very happy with himars, as they managed to inflict major damage with just 4 of them, blowing up ammo dumps and command hqs, killing dozens of officers.

It helps to understand that these are missiles, not dumb rockets. Comparing HIMARS to GRAD doesn't make sense.

Norway is donating M270s to Ukraine in cooperation with the UK. So far 3 are being transferred. Our M70s have mothballed since 2005 due to the cluster munition ban. Fun fact: When I was doing my military service, some crazy person stole one of them and took it for a spin in the town near the base. Before he was stopped it wasn't known if it was part of enemy action, so they asked for volunteers to arm up and fortify the perimeter. From my company myself and a handful others volunteered. The company I was in wasn't supposed to be the sharp end of the stick, though, that's probably why so few volunteered.

Over 20 ammo dumps, several headquarters, some opposing artillery... in a week. That's a serious result and well worth the cost at 10x. You can see the fall off in russian shelling since himers became active.

Poland recently ordered 500 HIMARS. Given it's performance in Ukraine - they are making a huge difference by targeting ammo and fuel depots and control centers - it's Russia that soon will be too afraid to escalate.

Just to mention it: germans used rocket-artillery to. Called "Nebelwerfer" & "Wurfgerät" you can find different versions, even mounted on armoured vehicles. The production was not that big as in the SU - obviously, but it was a regular part of german artillery.

Himars took out dozens of russian weapon depots. It forces them to move those a lot farther from the front, hampering logistics a lot. Russians artillery needs a lot of munition, but bad roads and bad transport means this has become an Achilles heel. Forget railroad supplies also, those are easy targets. It means every area within 80 km from the front becomes a kill-zone. So, its a bad place to be for high-value targets or serious concentrations of firepower. Not to mention the moral nighmare for russian soldiers. This can 8 pieces do, and 4 to come. Imagine more send. Every extra is another serious impact on the frontline. Tube search: "HIMARS forces Russia to move 90 km away from Ukrainian troops"

It's only an artillery "duel" if the other side has the range to shoot back. Russian rocket artillery typically has shorter range than their tube artillery. Grad and Katyusha are short range. Urugan and Smerch may be closer but still less than HiMARS. Tube artillery has no hope if HiMARS is placed out of range.

The most key thing i think you sort of missed out on is logistics, logistics, logistics. The most important thing in the war is cutting russia artillery ability, eliminate there cruise missiles with anti air, and attack there ammo stores to prevent them from firing thousands of rounds a day. And we can see it real time a total slow down of artillery along most of the fronts starting about 2 weeks ago. If russia has to consolidate and ration artillery shells, they wont be able to take another city, and if they try it probably wont end up like mariupol or lysychansk because they wont be able to level a city in the same way. And if only 2 maybe 3 rocket types max are over there and only 4-12 of them its going to be a hell of a lot easier to keep these reloaded and off the radar due to the ammo pack system, thats huge benefit over all russian artillery, you dont need anything other than a truck to carry the ammo packs and just drop them off in the woods. Bayraktar had an extreme impact right away but is almost useless now to do anything like hunt arty, but with all our assets looking right down on this one part of the world to help ukraine i think guided long range weapons can finally do what they were always designed to, slow down the red horde by destroying there command and logistics.

HIMARS- *Yo* Russian Army *CONFUSED SCREAMING*

Even a single HIMARS could reach the Snake Island from enough of UA territory to make it indefensible and force a RU retreat. So they are not efficient within a large-scale "level the ground we will be advancing on" USSR rocket artillery application, but they are definitely putting well-placed dents into Russian attack lines.

I did not invade Ukraine! I did NOT. Oh HI MARS

The US has stated they can give 100 HIMARS and it will not affect their operational capabilities worldwide. With what the u.s. is giving them and other countries it won't be long before they have 50 of these systems and that will effectively neutralize anything Russia can do at that point. 🤘🇺🇦🇺🇸

Stopping in 3 months later to say "yes" Devastating American Precision and Mobility

Thanks for the analysis. Thank you for the video.

Outstanding research and analysis. Keep up the great work!

I remember seeing a proposal to use SBDs and Stormbreakers on M270s, which would decrease their range but increase their accuracy for rapid counterbatery fire.

I did lance/mlrs. Very precise and very deadly, for large targets. Command and control, ammo dumps, barracks.

Great Video. Being a former 13M (MLRS Crewmember) I just wanted to point out that one among a few minor inaccuracies as my experience recalls... HIMARS were being cross trained into our units back to 2003 as I can remember, as opposed to 2010 in the video. And I recalled first hearing about them much earlier. I wouldn't call these new, and likely even the Fire Direction Control hasn't changed. In truth, this tech is early 80s with some evolved systems. The old M270A1 was just getting too expensive to maintain, and they recycled them in to what you see here. All the HIMARs really is is a nicer LMTV with the same LLM setup minus the second sixpak, and the M270 (Bradley chassis) and light Aluminum armor. Second thing worth mentioning is Rockets and Missiles are not the same. In the video he calls everything Rockets, but they are actually mostly Missiles. The difference is Missiles hit the target much like a Stinger does, and rockets usually don't. Rockets generally carry a payload... think ATACMS. This rocket/missile difference may not seem a big deal, however it is. The HIMARS can fire 6 missiles in the place of 1 single rocket. So basically a single rocket is the size of 6 missiles and takes the same around of time to load/unload. And I very certain, unless the old BATS systems was resurrected, they are only hitting tanks with missiles, not rockets. In fact, even the stationary targets are likely hit only with missiles. Now, I won't say I'm 100% the exact number, but I was pretty sure the Missiles we used were much longer distance than 180 miles... (I won't say what I recall it being, because I think this is still classified), and almost all missiles have longer distances. Lastly I just wanted to add in regards to the ammo supplied... it DOESN'T matter what ammo the US sent, because most NATO countries carry the same ammo. Poland or Germany could easily slip some of their long range ammo just as easy. Clever move but I'm pretty sure Russia is anticipating this already.

I'm Ukrainian -American. We have received between 4-17(most likely 9) HIMARS or analog to HIMARS systems from West. It huge game changer, thank you, uncle Sam

What do you think killed all those Russians at that base where they thought they were safe? What do you think is hitting all the weapon depots and supply routes 30+ miles into Russian controlled territory? HIMARS is already doing work, and somewhat shifting the tide. They’re doing far better than most thought they would considering the relatively low number of units.

Task & Purpose is always interesting & informative.