As Biden mulls sending APCs, Ukraine shifts strategy for U.S. rockets from destroying Russian ammo to destroying Russians

(Originally published Jan. 5 in “What in the World“) Ukraine says it has used Lockheed Martin’s Himars, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, to help it kill or wound 1,000 Russian troops so far this year. Ukraine’s targeting of enemy troops represents a shift from its previous strategy of using Himars to destroy Russian ammunition depots and other supply lines. The first sign of this shift came in early December, when Ukraine used Himars to hit a hotel housing members of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.

Ukraine’s head of military intelligence told ABC to expect more attacks inside Russia, too. Ukraine still hasn’t taken responsibility for drone attacks last month against a Russian airbase. But the attacks were reportedly conducted by home-made Ukrainian surveillance drones, retrofitted to carry explosives.

While he still won’t send Ukraine the battle tanks it has asked for, U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday he is now considering sending it Bradley Fighting Vehicles. His statement follows French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that he would send Kyiv AMX-10 RC armored vehicles. Australia has already sent Ukraine 90 Bushmaster Protected Mobility vehicles.

The M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, made by BAE Systems, looks like tank, but it isn’t a tank. It’s an armored personnel carrier that can carry up to six troops in addition to its three-person crew. The BFV is also equipped with an automatic cannon and anti-tank TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) missiles. It was designed to be as fast as the M1 Abrams tank so that it could keep up with tanks in battle.

On the Syrian front, meanwhile, two rockets hit a U.S. base just north of the Conoco gas plant outside Khasham called Mission Support Site Conoco. While the base is ostensibly there to fight remnants of the Islamic State in Syria, a human rights group said the missiles were fired by Iran-supported Arab tribesmen. Khasham was the site of a 2018 battle between U.S. and Kurdish militias against Russian-backed Syrian government forces using Russian tanks and possibly accompanied by members of the Wagner Group.

Having supplied Russia with attack drones for use over Ukraine, Iran now appears to be converting a container vessel into a carrier for helicopters and drones. Photographs purportedly taken from Bandar Abbas drydocks near the Straits of Hormuz show the ship has been outfitted with a cantilever flight deck.