Putin beordrar styrkor att gå in i Ukraina - INVASION NU (2022-02-24)

As for ATACMS, there just aren’t that many of them. Just 4,000 in total have been built, and many of them were used up during the War on Terror and training, while almost 1,000 of them have been sold to foreign buyers. Only 500 are manufactured per year, most of them contractually committed to foreign buyers. And with China and North Korea both acting belligerently, ATACMS would be important in an American defense of either South Korea or Taiwan. It’s clear the Pentagon is hesitate to dip into what appears to be a limited stash.

All that said, absent completely empty stocks, it does seem ridiculous that the United States wouldn’t have 50 of the rockets to spare. It wouldn’t take much: a few dozen fired into Sevastopol would clear out Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and send them out of range of the port city of Odesa, which they are hammering with sea-skimming anti-ship missiles immune to current Ukrainian air defenses. A dozen more might be able to take out the rail line on the Kerch Bridge. That would leave 1-2 dozen ATACMS for opportunistic targets, and to simply keep Russia fearful and at bay.