<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654799314267,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016b-0e59-daea-a7ff-0f5fee2e0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654799314267,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016b-0e59-daea-a7ff-0f5fee2e0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_53335662", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1018051"} }); rn","_id":"00000181-49b9-d590-a5f1-cbbba7640000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe military is planning to train a platoon of Ukrainian service members on how to use high-tech multiple-launch rocket artillery, Gen. Mark Milley said on Wednesday.
Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters following his return from France that the plan to teach Ukrainian soldiers how to use the weapon developed by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is contingent upon the initial group demonstrating proficiency.
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“We’ve got to start this thing with a program that is rational and deliberate and gets them trained to a standard where they become effective,” Milley added, according to the Washington Post. “It will do no good to just throw this weapon system into the battle. You’ve got to be trained on it to get the maximum effective use out of the weapon as a precision system.”
The Russian forces have “demonstrated that they are outgunning and outranging Ukrainian artillery” in the fighting in the Donbas region, the chairman explained.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Severodonetsk “remains the epicenter” of Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine and the “fate” of the Donbas region “is being decided there.”
Last week, the Biden administration approved the transfer of four M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, a Lockheed Martin product known as HIMARS, while the United Kingdom said it’d send three M270 multiple-launch rocket systems. Dr. Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon, announced the transfer on June 1, sharing that the training would take roughly three weeks.
“The Ukrainians have very good artillerymen, very good gunners. They’re excellent at artillery,” Milley added. “But they have been using Soviet-era systems and then transitioning to different [Western] systems.”
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Ukrainian leaders, including Zelensky, assured U.S. officials that the HIMARS would not be used to hit targets in Russia, a red line of sorts for the United States, which opted not to provide Ukraine with long-range Advanced Tactical Missile Systems that can go more than 180 miles.
U.S. military members have trained Ukrainian soldiers on other weapons systems at earlier points in Russia’s war in Ukraine, which began in February. The administration was slow to begin such transfers under the belief that the Ukrainians would not be successful in fighting back Russian forces.
