Thursday, March 28

USA and Denmark send this weapon to Ukraine


Each unit of the powerful Harpoon naval missile costs up to a million euros. With a dozen of them, Ukraine could damage Russia’s Black Sea fleet enough to force Moscow to negotiate a partial lifting of the naval blockade. The global food crisis caused by the impossibility of exporting Ukrainian grain by sea would be mitigated. kyiv would also avoid Russian missile attacks launched from some of its 20 ships and submarines stationed in those waters. But the plan is fraught with uncertainty and difficulties: the training to learn how to use them lasts weeks, it is not easy to get the launchers to arrive and only with missiles it is almost a dream to end a naval closure.

Denmark has agreed to send a launcher and several Harpoon missiles to Ukraine, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced on May 24. A few days earlier it became known that the White House was preparing a plan to deliver these powerful missiles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, probably through a third country. Everything is done very discreetly because the sinking of Russian fleet ships can be seen from Moscow as an escalation in the conflict. April 14th, Ukraine sank the Moskva missile carrier, flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. It was a military coup, but also a blow to the morale of the Russian invader.

“The Harpoon missile is an American subsonic anti-ship missile that has been in service since the mid-1970s and that, since then, has been updated and has been adopted by a large part of the NATO member states,” he explains to this newspaper Beatriz Cozar Murillo, doctoral candidate in Strategic Studies and author in the magazine Ejércitos. “In the specific case of the missiles that Denmark plans to send to Ukraine, it is an adaptation of this system designed so that the missiles can be launched from a truck that carries an assembly for four missiles. The detection and control systems are mounted on other trucks”.

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One or two dozen such missiles like the Harpoons, with ranges of more than 100 km, could be enough to threaten Russian ships blockading the Ukrainian coast, says the naval expert from the Hudson Institute Bryan Clark. “If Putin insists on the naval blockade, Ukraine could sink some of the largest ships, because they have nowhere to hide in the Black Sea,” he assured the Reuters agency.

But the project of arming Ukraine with powerful naval missiles has another problem to those already counted: there is little availability of launch platforms from the coast. One solution, US officials have told Reuters, is to rip a shuttle off a US ship and send it to Ukraine to be mounted on a truck.

The characteristics of the Harpoon II

Although the Harpoon model that is planned to be sent to Ukraine has not been specified, it is known that the Danish Navy has batteries of Harpoon Block II missiles, manufactured in Saint Charles, Missouri, by the American company Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Specifically, the Danish model is the RGM-84L-4, which is capable of hitting targets at 280 km.

They weigh between 519 and 628 kg and measure between 3.8 and 4.6m, depending on the launch platform. They carry a warhead of about 250 kg, with penetrating explosive. Propulsion is achieved by a so-called Teledyne Turbojet engine that uses solid fuel. The speed is 0.85 times the speed of sound.; that is, they fly at 281 meters per second.

More than single missiles, the Harpoon is a “coastal defense system” consisting of three modules that can be attached to different types of trucks or tractors: a missile control unit, two launch/transport units (with four ‘boats’ that stand up to fire) and a launcher replenishment unit (which is transferred to the launching unit by means of a crane).

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“The missile control unit is the only manned vehicle and it is the heart of the launch system. It is operated by a minimum of three people and contains the weapons control console, a launcher switching unit, a training module and communication transceivers”, analyzes a weapons expert from the consulting firm Security Hub who prefers to remain anonymous. “The Harpoon is one of the best and most versatile missiles that exist, but there are several models: one for the US and another for export, which is usually inferior in characteristics,” the expert concludes.

The missile uses a GPS assisted inertial navigation system to hit the designated target. One of the characteristics of the version in possession of Denmark of the Harpoon is that they can hit the target even against ships very close to land.

The Ukrainian sea blockade

Ukraine is subject to a total maritime blockade by Russia. It has two seas, that of Azov, already totally controlled by the invading army, after taking the port city of Mariúpol; and the Black Sea. The latter washes the shores of Crimea, where Russia has the Sevastopol maritime base.

The port of Odessa, the largest port city still in Ukrainian hands, remains closed and inoperative. The waters that bathe it have been mined by Ukraine to prevent a Russian amphibious assault. So nothing can enter by ship (causing fuel shortages at gas stations across the country). Nothing can come out either, which is caused by a lack of wheat in the world and that countries are prohibiting re-exports, leaving others on the verge of scarcity. Ukraine and Russia were responsible for 30% of global wheat exports. The price of this raw material, with which bread is made, a staple food in many African countries, has risen by more than 50%.

That is why the possibility of creating a corridor for exports is so desirable. But it is unlikely to be achieved with Harpoon missiles alone. “They can be useful to continue preventing Russian ships from approaching the Ukrainian coast and as a complement to the Neptune anti-ship missiles in service, responsible for the sinking of the cruiser ‘Moskva'”, explains Cózar. “But they can hardly serve to create a “bubble” A2/AD [Anti-Acceso/Denegación de Área, término militar para impedir el acceso a una zona] enough, for example, to reopen the waters closest to the coast to maritime traffic and release the merchant ships trapped near Odessa”. Even if Russian surface ships could not get close to the coast, the Black Sea Fleet operates several modern diesel submarines that are safe from these missiles.

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Another option: the NSM or Naval Strike Missile

Related news

According to the Reuters news agency, Washington is also considering the possibility of sending Naval Strike missiles (NSM) made by Kongsberg and Raytheon Technologies, either directly or through European allies that have them, to later replace them. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Portugal in April to send him Harpoon systems.

The NSMs have a range of 250 km, and training requires only two weeks to have soldiers lined up and ready to launch them. These also have the advantage that logistically they are less complex to take to the country, because countries allied with theto NATO have mobile launchers available and there are heads that Norway could lend or donate, under the commitment to be replaced later by Washington, something to which members of the Norwegian Parliament have already been favorable. “It is a powerful weapon that could change the course of the Russian war against Ukraine,” said MP Ola Elvestwen. “I think the NSM system should be sent to Ukraine.”


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