The United States last week secretly shipped a new long-range missile system to Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces immediately used the weapons to attack a Russian military airfield in Crimea last Wednesday and Russian troops in the country’s southeast overnight on Tuesday, according to a senior U.S. official.
The United States previously supplied Ukraine with a version of the Army Tactical Missile Systems — known as ATACMS — armed with wide-spreading cluster munitions that can travel 100 miles.
But Ukraine has long coveted the system’s longer-range version, with a range of about 190 miles. That can reach deeper into occupied Ukraine, including Crimea, a hub of Russian air and ground forces, and supply nodes for Moscow’s forces in the country’s southeast.
Overnight Tuesday, Ukraine used the longer-range missiles to strike Russian troops in the port city of Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov, the senior U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
The argument they have is that Taurus is programmed using proprietary Bundeswehr Software and cannot be programmed without it. So only Bundeswehr personell can do it. As the software is part of the larger systems of the Bundeswehr so they cannot just provide it to Ukraine.
And this would mean German soldiers in Ukraine and that was the line Olaf does not want to cross.
Even though rumors and later confirmation by the Germans indicate this was true for storm shadow and scalp as well… and these missiles are used by the Ukranians… So probably France and the UK have a skeleton crew in theatre to program their ordenance for the Ukranians.
Ah yes , I forgot that bit. These men on the ground are usually called instructors & maintenance crew. Germany ( Rheinmetall) and other facilititators are building factories with some self defense systems in U.A. They are called the construction crew, I reckon. Political correctness, just use the “correct” names.^^.