The Russian military has taken out a rare resupply vehicle for the US-supplied system, footage released by the military shows
The Russian military has destroyed a rare Ukrainian US-supplied HIMARS resupply vehicle in a ballistic missile strike, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Saturday.
Surveillance drone footage released by the Russian military shows the resupply vehicle maneuvering into a dugout concealed in a wooded strip between two fields. The position was discovered in the vicinity of the village of Novonikolayevka, located some 26km to the east of the Ukrainian city of Nikolayev, the military noted.
The location was hit with a ballistic missile fired by an Iskander-M system shortly after the vehicle was discovered. The missile appeared to have featured a high-explosive warhead rigged for airburst, footage suggests, and the munition seemingly scored a direct hit on the dugout. Up to ten Ukrainian servicemen were killed by the strike, the ministry said.
The destroyed loader appears to belong to the US-manufactured Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV), a large series of military vehicles based upon a common chassis, yet varying by mission and payload. The resupply vehicle features an armored cab and a distinctive folding cargo crane in its rear, footage shows.
Kiev has been receiving M142 HIMARS and its heavier tracked cousin, the M270 MLRS, as well as derivatives of those systems, since mid-2022. Initially touted as the ultimate high-precision tool to strike high-value Russian assets deep in the rear, the launchers have been routinely used in indiscriminate attacks on purely civilian targets during the conflict.
The ongoing hostilities in Russia’s Kursk Region, where Kiev mounted an incursion last August, have taken a heavy toll on the HIMARS, with at least 13 units of the M142 and seven of the M270 MLRS destroyed in the area, according to the latest Russian estimates.
