As recently as September there were reports that the US had once again denied Ukrainian requests to provide long range missiles known as ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System). But President Biden reportedly changed his mind recently. Earlier this week a small number of the missiles were secretly delivered to Ukraine. They were quickly put to use against two Russian air bases. Here’s a map showing the Berdyansk airfield strike:

Several sources are now claiming the strikes on the Russian airfields in #Berdyansk and #Luhansk were conducted using both #ATACMS and the #GLSDB guided bombs which can both be fired from the M142 HIMARS or M270 GMLRS launchers.

The Russian military sources claim that four GLSDB… pic.twitter.com/oTtPlcgLfh

— OSINT (Uri) 🇺🇦 (@UKikaski) October 17, 2023

A video of the launch of two ATACMS (“attack-ems”) missiles (against a different Russian airfield):

Just a couple additional Ukrainian HIMARS ATACMS launch videos from 2 days ago. pic.twitter.com/imSJ20WJfQ

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) October 20, 2023

There are several versions of these missiles. The version sent to Ukraine are older model cluster bombs, each one contains 950 separate smaller bomblets which spread out to damage a wide area like an airfield. Here’s what the bomblets look like:

M74 cluster munitions from American ATACMS ballistic missiles were discovered in Berdyansk, Zaporozhye region, after night strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

WarDonbass pic.twitter.com/3q7y9npGCe

— dana (@dana916) October 17, 2023

Here’s what a strike with these missiles looks like from afar.

This is what an ATACMS strike looks like. 950 submunitions in one missile. 😍😍🔥#UkraineRussiaWar️️ #Crimea pic.twitter.com/oI4K7daJQW

— Dr. Khaled Alfaiomi (@Alfaiomi) October 19, 2023

A closer video of Russian attack helicopters on fire in Berdyansk.

This is what it looks like when 🇺🇸 ATACAMS are used by Ukraine 🇺🇦 to strike an airbase in 🇷🇺-occupied Berdyansk. pic.twitter.com/eDWTxpnvMr

— Jason Jay Smart (@officejjsmart) October 17, 2023

Early estimates said the strikes at two air bases had destroyed a total of 9 Russian helicopters but subsequent reports suggest the real number was 14. Here’s the UK Defense Ministry assessment published Thursday.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 20 October 2023.

Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/ZwZC6CaiUn

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/J3dLz99k2V

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 20, 2023

In addition to the 14 destroyed helicopters, there were also several more which were heavily damaged and will require repairs before they can fly again. This account of the damage based on satellite imagery reads:

8 helicopters were completely destroyed, 6 were damaged and probably totaled and a radar was destroyed at Berdyansk. A Pantsir SAM located outside the image to the east may also have been damaged. In Luhansk, at least 7 helicopters were damaged or destroyed (one of which was not included in previous public analyses). Confirmed losses therefore amount to 21 helicopters destroyed or damaged and one radar destroyed.

Many people have criticised GeoConfirmed's count of "21 helicopters destroyed or damaged" in the recent strikes on Berdyansk and Luhansk airfields. Someone said in a @HelloMrBond Twitter space that GeoConfirmed had "counted empty revetments", which is not true.

I can say that… https://t.co/L1kYRlsMlK pic.twitter.com/sNf0yz73pW

— Benjamin Pittet (@COUPSURE) October 20, 2023

This image gives a sense of some of the damage to the helicopters that survived.

⚡️Numerous holes in the fuselage of the 🇷🇺Russian Ka-52 helicopter, which was hit by a cluster 🇺🇦ATACMS at the Berdyansk airfield pic.twitter.com/Z7FonmBrMo

— 🇺🇦Ukrainian Front (@front_ukrainian) October 20, 2023

That’s a pretty significant number of attack helicopters taken out of commission by just a handful of missiles. Russia’s Foreign Ministry was not happy with the US.

💬 #Zaitsev: It became clear on October 17 that the US had secretly delivered long-range #ATACMS missiles to Ukraine.

❌ By giving such weapons to the Ukrainian Nazis, Washington has again demonstrated its desire to escalate the conflict. pic.twitter.com/u6edNJfkUy

— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) October 20, 2023

A Russian military blogger said the attack was a major disaster.

On Tuesday, a Russian military blogger known as “Fighterbomber” posted on Telegram that the attacks overnight were “one of the most serious blows of all time in the Northern Military District, if not the most serious.”

“It’s pointless to write about the fact that ‘we need to draw conclusions so that this doesn’t happen again,’” the Russian blogger wrote. “This will happen again as long as the war continues. We must be prepared for this.”

Russia has reportedly moved surviving helicopters away from the two bases that were hit. President Putin brought up the delivery of ATACMS during a press conference this week where he dismissed the claim that Russia had lost the war.

Journalist : Biden said that Russia lost the war.

Putin: If Russia lost then why is he sending ATACMS and other weapons to Ukraine?! Ask him this question. If we already lost then let him take all his weapons back and come to us for pancakes and tea 😂#Russia #VladimirPutin… pic.twitter.com/e85LV3b9g0

— EdMar ☀️ (@d00m777) October 18, 2023

In any case, as the UK Defense Ministry pointed out, Russia has been relying on helicopters at the front lines. The loss of those helicopters and the need to move surviving helicopters to a base farther away will make it much harder for Russia to use them offensively. They also won’t be able to make replacements any time soon.

This is a pretty good summary of the story with the exception that the number of Russian helicopters destroyed is higher than initially thought.