Latvia joined an alliance of regional partners to acquire the HIMARS rocket platforms
According to Defense News, a spokesperson for the military said that Latvia had requested purchase of the US’s High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. Poland and other European partners also made similar requests to purchase the long-range weapon. The Ukrainian army received it recently.
Latvian Ministry of Defense “sent a letter of request to the US about the availability and prices of HIMARS,”On Tuesday, the spokesperson added that the acquisition has been completed “a joint project of the Baltic States”According to officials, they expect American citizens to accept them. “co-financing”For the weapon.
The reported request comes after the other Baltic nations – Estonia and Lithuania – also asked about the HIMARS, with Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas noting in June that, “together with the Latvian and Estonian allies,”It was his country. “looking into developing a HIMARS artillery rocket system capability.”While he expressed hopes that a contract would be signed sometime in the year, the Pentagon said it had authorized a sale of six HIMARS units to Estonia on July 15th.
The issue was raised by Poland in the meantime, and Mariusz Blaszczak (Defense Minister) addressed it. declaredWarsaw sought hundreds of HIMARS launchers for the United States. He has yet to receive any response from the public.
Interest in the rocket system in Eastern Europe appears to have spiked since Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February, which also prompted Washington and a long list of allies to send billions of dollars in weapons in support of the government in Kiev. Though the Joe Biden administration authorized several rounds of heavy weapons earlier in the conflict, it didn’t agree to send the HIMARS until June, reportedly fearing the longer-range system could be used for strikes on Russian soil and escalate direct tensions with Moscow.
Ukrainian forces have received 12 HIMARS platforms so far – though the Pentagon recently announced it would send four more – and Kiev’s military has suggested it could be a suitable replacement for the longest-range weapon currently in its arsenal, the Tochka-U. In an interview with the Washington Post on Sunday, a senior Ukrainian military-intelligence official said “very few”Tochkas continue to serve after fighting for months, and were requested for HIMARS longer-range munitions which can hit targets 300km (186 mi) distant.
It’s unclear what difference the ammunition would make on the battlefield, however, as Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov previously predicted his country would require up to 100 HIMARS to mount “an effective counteroffensive,”There are many more options than those 16 already approved.
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Missiles for US-made HIMARS destroyed – Moscow
In a claim that they had destroyed a HIMARS rocket launcher inventory, the Russian Defense Ministry said earlier in this month. It also claimed on Monday it attacked HIMARS munitions as well as other US-provided weapons within western Ukraine. Ukrainian officials denied the earlier report, however, with the same military-intelligence figure telling the Post “We haven’t lost a single HIMARS.”
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