The US is launching a missile capable of burying the Tomahawk on Iran. And the big question is where are you doing it from?

The image of an American precision strike has been linked to silhouettes taking off from the sea or from the air. However, in recent years the Army has invested billions in recovering a capability that seemed secondary: hitting very, very far… from the mainland. In that bet may lie one of the greatest transformations of modern military power. A debut that changes theater. USA has premiered in combat the so-called Precision Strike Missileits new tactical ballistic missile, within the operation against Iran. It is not a minor evolution of the former ATACMSit is rather a leap in scope and concept. With more than 500 kilometers radius (and room to grow towards 650 and even 1,000) practically doubles the depth of ground fire available until now. As in many other “premieres”, it is not symbolic, it is doctrinal. A missile to bury the Tomahawk. The PrSM flies at speeds greater than Mach 3 in the terminal phase, allowing it to arrive earlier and better penetrate hardened targets. Forehead to Tomahawkslower and subsonic, the new system greatly reduces the enemy’s reaction time and complicates interception. Additionally, two missiles fit in a single HIMARS launcher pod, meaning that double the punch per vehicle. Of course, it does not replace the Tomahawk in strategic range, but in regional scenarios it can be left in the background due to speed, survivability and response capacity against time-sensitive targets. A PrSM capsule seen in front of a US Army M142 during an exercise in Australia. The M142 carries a 227 mm rocket with six projectiles. The Persian Gulf as a platform. At this point, geography explains a good part of the movement. The Gulf has a medium width of just 250 kilometerswith American allies aligned on the western bank and Iran occupying the eastern one. With a range of 500 kilometers, a land battery located anywhere on the Arab side can cover wide swathes from Iranian territory without the need to penetrate its airspace. That makes the missile a perfect tool to support an air campaign without exposing fighters or depending exclusively on ships. A test launch of a PrSM The key question: from where? The most decisive fact remains unknown. No has been confirmed Which Gulf country has authorized the use of its soil to launch these missiles. This mystery is not technical, it is rather political. The reason? Allowing a US land battery to fire on Iran automatically makes that territory in possible objective of retaliation. Many States in the region have historically preferred discreetly support to Washington while avoiding public exposure. Put another way, the exact location of the launch determines what capital takes on the direct risk. Hunting sensitive targets. Short-range ballistic missiles are especially effective against radars, mobile launchers and air defense nodes. Plus: they can be maintained on permanent alert and strike within minutes when a target arises. In a conflict where neutralizing anti-aircraft systems is key to sustaining air superiority, the PrSM provides a ground suppression capability which until now relied heavily on aviation and naval missiles. Beyond Iran. If you also want the premiere of the PrSM send a signal to other scenarios, especially the Pacific. Its planned evolution includes anti-ship versions capable of attacking moving targets and variants with greater range that will touch the threshold of medium-range missiles. It we have counted before. The US Army wants regain prominence in long-range warfare, traditionally dominated by the Air Force and Navy. Iran, in that sense, has been the first real test bed. Cost, volume and future. It is the “but” of any ballistic missile. Each projectile can exceed a million and a half dollars, although the price has been dropping as production increases. The goal is to reach up to 400 units annuallywhich will expand the available inventory and facilitate its sustained use. With future versions that could exceed the 1,000 kilometers rangethe PrSM does not seem just a substitute for the ATACMS. It is the first stone of a terrestrial architecture that seeks to project deep power from solid ground. What is really at stake. In short, the real twist is not that the United States has launched a new missile in a war, but that it has from the ground and against Iran. If he Tomahawk has symbolized precision warfare from the sea, the PrSM aims to represent the return of the tactical ballistic missile as a flexible instrument of regional pressure. And while it is not known with certainty from what ground ally is taking off, the political dimension of that launch will continue to be as relevant as the technical one. Image | CENTCOM, Australian Army, US Army In Xataka | If the question is how much of Europe is within range of Iran’s missiles, the answer is simple: a fairly large In Xataka | The arrival of the B-2s to Iran can only mean one thing: the search for the greatest threat to the United States has begun

Ukraine has returned from the US with two bad news, and the least of it is the Tomahawk missiles

Last Friday it was supposed to take place a nuclear meeting for the future of war in ukraine. However, what happened in the White House ended up being less a diplomatic exercise than a scene of head-on collision: a president demanding territorial capitulation from an invaded country, a president refusing to give up what he still defends under fire, and a third absent actor marking the remote script of what Trump repeated with a literality that blurred any pretense of mediation. Concessions and threats. He had exclusive the financial times that Trump discarded the maps of the front, repeated that the war was not such but a “special operation” in Putin’s words, and urged Zelensky to accept the loss of Donetsk and the entire Donbas as the price of peace, warning that “If Putin wants, he will destroy you.” The conversation degeneratedapparently in shouts and ultimatum language, with the Ukrainian delegation attempting achieve Tomahawks (denied) while listening to arguments identical to those from Moscow put forward one day before to Trump himself. The American president even verbalized in public, already on Air Force One, the solution of freezing the war “where the lines are,” leaving negotiations on territory “for later.” The Russian proposal. Putin, in his previous call, demanded total surrender of Donetsk (a military objective that Moscow has failed to achieve in eleven years of combined war) offering as a counterpart only parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia that it currently controls precariously. For Ukraine, surrender the eastern bastion without combat (key to containing a penetration towards the Dnieper and kyiv) it is unacceptable because it would be equivalent to dynamiting the strategic defense of the entire country and, in psychological and political terms, to legitimizing a violent annexation project active since 2014. Trump and the European reading. trump had hinted Weeks ago that Ukraine could recover “everything and more,” and that Russia was a “paper tiger,” he now maintains that Moscow “has gained property” and should be given some credit. The literal echo of Putin’s points in Trump’s words dissipated among allies the hope of reopening the arms route and revealed that the matrix of the negotiation that Washington is pushing is no longer symmetrical but asymmetrical: downward pressure on the invaded and assumption of the invader’s premise. Russian internal calculation. For Ukrainian analysts, Donetsk’s demand does not so much seek to maximize territorial gain as to induce a sociopolitical fracture within Ukraine: forcing the leadership to consider what society will not tolerate to open an axis of internal delegitimization. Putin, in fact, already knows the social impossibility of barter, and that is why he insists: the desired cost is the erosion of cohesion rather than the line on the map. The Ukrainian position. Zelenskiy confirmed after the meeting that I would agree to freeze the front in its current location as a condition for entering talks, but stressed that there will not be additional delivery of territory. Considers that any negotiation must start with an immediate cessation on the line of contact, not with prior territorial modifications in favor of the aggressor. Trump’s public statements and the prospect of a Trump-Putin meeting in Budapest They do not alter that principle: without prior freezing and without forced concession, there is no viable dialogue. Tactical horizon. Ukraine enters winter under massive attacks on your energy infrastructure while responding by hitting Russian refineries. The lack of long range missiles from Washington after the call with Putin limits its capacity for deep counter-escalation just when Moscow is looking for time, social fatigue and diplomatic fracture. kyiv, in the absence of immediate alternatives, indicates that a ceasefire on current lines would be acceptable as a table key, but not the surrender of Donetsk as an entry passport. Peace on demand. If you will, the scheme that has emerged from this sequence (Putin-Trump call, Trump-Zelensky meeting, territorial barter proposal and appeal to the “agreement” freezing positions) places Ukraine before a conditional peace that recognizes the violence of annexation as a fait accompli and requires the invaded to formalize it. The ukrainian reaction (freeze, negotiate, but not give in) is the last dam between an end to the fire and an end to the State in the political-strategic sense. The meeting did not bring closer an equitable end to the war: it clarified the type of end that certain architecture is willing to accept, even if it does not say it out loud. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, NARA In Xataka | The factories of deep America have reopened. And they all make the same “toy”: an army of combat drones In Xataka | The crazy number of drones has turned the Ukrainian sky into the M-30 at rush hour. Identifying the enemy is a danger

Ukraine has invoked what Russia vetoed since the beginning of the war. And he told the US to tighten the button: Tomahawk

Distances in modern wars are nuclear issues. In Ukraine it was very clear in November 2024, when the world held thinking that Putin finally had “tightened” the button. So, A few kilometers They were key for the Moscow missile not to activate all red lines. That is why also, since the invasion of 2022, a name that kyiv has just invoked as one of the greatest orders to Russia has rarely jumped to the fore. Tomahawks in Ukraine. USA Study seriously The request of the Ukrainian President Zelenski to incorporate cruise missiles Tomahawk To his arsenal, a step that would be an unprecedented escalation in the war. These missiles, with a range of between 1,500 and 2,500 kilometers according to the versions, would be able to reach Moscow and much of the Russian territory from Ukrainian soil, which would represent a qualitative change with respect to the current kyiv capacities, based mainly on long -range drones and the limited ones Atacms missiles previously authorized by Washington. The possibility of its delivery reflects the turn of the Donald Trump administration, which until recently was reluctant to extend the conflict, but now transmits a more belligerent speech: for its special envoy Keith Kellogg “There are no sanctuaries” and Ukraine should be able to hit Russia deeply to alter the dynamics of war. The Russian answer. From Moscow, the statements were received with an alarm and challenge mixture. Spokesman Dmitri Peskov recognized that the Kremlin was carrying out an “in -depth analysis” about the implications of an eventual supply of Tomahawks, raising questions about who would control its launch and the selection of objectives: if exclusively the Ukrainians or if there were American personnel involved, which would bring the scenario closer to a direct confrontation between powers. Besides, warned thateven if these missiles will be delivered, “there is no panacea” capable of rooting the situation on the front, where Russia claims to be constantly moving forward. The implicit message is that, even before a technological leap, Moscow would maintain the military initiative and not give in western blackmail. Reprisals and a shadow. The Russian political class went further in their warnings. The president of the Parliament Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, said that any US military specialist who participated in operations with Tomahawks would become reprisal objective direct, “and no one can protect them, neither Trump nor Kellogg nor anyone else.” Similarly, Putin He has repeated On previous occasions that Russia reserves The right to attack military facilities in third European countries if attacks against their territory are facilitated. The threat is not less: it would make NATO base white, with an obvious risk of climbing towards a direct conflict of greater size. Even Dmitri Medvedev, in his usual tone, He warned that Europe “It cannot afford a war with Russia”, but that “the risk of a fatal accident always exists”, in reference to the possible trigger for a greater confrontation from an error of calculation or a crossing of red lines. Tomahawk Change of American course. No doubt, the reconsideration of the supply of Tomahawks to Ukraine symbolizes a Turn in the strategy United States. During the presidency of Biden, Washington was extremely cautious, Limiting to reluctant The use of Atacms within the Russian territory and fearing to trigger an uncontrolled escalation. Under Trump, however, the speech has mutated: he starts talking about Ukraine as Able to win the warRussia is qualified as “paper tiger” and Multiply the pressure For European allies to also contribute with long -range missiles, such as German bullfighting. Former Lithuanian Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis He stressed That these weapons would not only give Ukraine greater control, but also allow “marking the tone” of the climb, instead of letting it be Moscow who unilaterally decides the depth of the attacks. Atacms Military Comparison: Atacms. The debate on which long -range missiles should receive Ukraine is not only political, but deeply technical and strategicbecause each system offers different possibilities on the battlefield. In front of Tomahawk, the Atacms, already used by Ukraine, is a tactical ballistic missile launched since Himars systems either M270. Its most widespread versions can reach 300 km. HE They use above all to hit deposits of ammunition, aerodromes and troops concentrations behind the immediate lines of the front. Its impact has been remarkable by forcing Russia to displace its more logistics centers within, but its limited scope leaves most of the Russian strategic rear. For Moscow, the difference with a Tomahawk is abysmal: while the Atacms forces to retreat a few hundred kilometers, a Tomahawk would put all its military and political apparatus at risk. Taurus Kepd 350 Military comparative: Taurus Kepd 350. He Taurusjointly developed by Germany and Sweden, it is an aerial cruise missile launched from combat planes such as The Tornado or the Eurofighter. Its estimated scope is 500 km, with a penetration eyelet designed to destroy bunkers, landing clues and strongly protected objectives. His ultrabajo flight profile and his capacity for electronic evasion make it especially difficult to intercept. Ukraine has been claiming these missiles for some time, although Berlin He has shown reluctance for the risk of being used to attack on Russian soil. In case of reaching Kiev, they would give the Ukrainian Air Force the ability to attack with great precision key military facilities such as aerodromes, barracks or weapons deposits in areas that until now remained out of reach. Strategic implications. The essential difference is In the scope: Atacms offer a tactical radius limited to the immediate area of ​​the front, the Taurus would allow to hit deeply in the Russian operational rear, and the Tomahawk would open the possibility of strategic attacks to the entire interior of the country, including its large urban and military centers. This reach staircase translates into different levels of climbing: while the attacks are perceived as a weapon of containment and wear, the Taurus already touch the capacity for operational denial and the Tomahawk cross directly to the field of strategic deterrence, … Read more

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