MGM-140 ATACMS Missile: Long-range 'acupressure' weapon changes the game

The MGM-140 ATACMS tactical ballistic missile was put into service in the US military in early 1991. The MGM-140 ATACMS is a line of tactical ballistic missiles developed by Lockheed Martin for the US military and some allied countries such as Australia, Bahrain, Greece, South Korea, Romania, Poland, Türkiye, Qatar...

ATACMS combines mobility and power, allowing for deep, accurate, and fast strikes. Photo: U.S. Army — *ATACMS combines mobility and power, allowing for deep, accurate, and fast strikes. Photo: US Army*

The missile has a range of 150-300 km depending on the variant and can be deployed on many different platforms, mostly ground vehicles with variants such as the M270 MLRS or HIMARS rocket artillery.

The MGM-140 ATACMS is designed to precisely attack important targets located deep behind enemy lines. The main mission of the ATACMS is to strike quickly and strongly at command posts, communication centers, ammunition and fuel depots, troop assembly areas, as well as air defense positions and radar systems of the enemy, in order to paralyze the command and control capabilities and prepare for the main attack force's advance.

ATACMS is a strategic tool for deep-strike operations, forcing the enemy to disperse its forces and expose its weaknesses. Photo: U.S. Army — *ATACMS is a strategic tool for deep-strike campaigns, forcing the enemy to disperse its forces and expose its weaknesses. Photo: US Army*

With a typical range of more than 160 to about 300 km, ATACMS allows the operator to stay out of danger zones but still have a strategic impact, turning launchers like HIMARS and MLRS into deep, precise and mobile strike tools.

Despite its large size and unique appearance, each M270 MLRS system can actually only carry 2 MGM-140 ATACMS missiles, while the HIMARS can only carry 1.

The MGM-140 ATACMS missile weighs 1.6 tons, is 4 meters long, has a body diameter of 610 mm, and can carry many different types of warheads, including fragmentation warheads capable of causing damage over a wide area. In addition, this missile can be equipped with a nuclear warhead with a destructive power of 15-25 Kilotons. The missile is guided by a global positioning system and inertial guidance for extremely high accuracy.

ATACMS allows for deep strikes, hitting enemy choke points, weakening supplies and disrupting battle plans in an instant. Photo: U.S. Army — *ATACMS allows for deep strikes, hitting enemy choke points, weakening supplies and disrupting battle plans in the blink of an eye. Photo: US Army*

After being put into service, Lockheed Martin continued to develop the ATACMS project with the launch of subsequent variants of the MGM-140. Each variant was developed for different types of missions, in which, the M39 (Block I) was the first version with a fragmentation warhead (about hundreds of M74s) used to destroy manpower and soft targets at ranges of about 25-165 km; M39A1 (Block IA) was an upgraded version with GPS, reducing the number of fragments to allow the missile to fly further. M39A2 (Block II) carried a type of smart bomb called BAT, specialized in finding and destroying tanks. Types like the M48 and M57 (and the upgraded M57E1) only carried a large, high-explosive warhead to hit points such as bridges, warehouses or fortified bases, so they needed to be more accurate.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/ten-lua-mgm-140-atacms-vu-khi-diem-huet-tam-xa-thay-doi-the-tran-430052.html