Turkey to transfer 70 ATACMS missiles and 12 M270 launchers to Ukraine, State Dept notifies Congress
Turkey is transferring 70 ATACMS missiles, 12 M270 launchers, 2,524 cluster rockets and 47,000 cluster shells to Ukraine, per a State Dept notice in the Congressional Record. Turkey offloads aging US-made stock while Washington's own reserves stay untouched, per Kyiv Post.
The US State Department has notified Congress of a major arms transfer from Turkey to Ukraine, according to documents entered into the Congressional Record and reported by Kyiv Post and Militarnyi. The package includes 70 M39 ATACMS ballistic missiles, 12 M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System launchers, 2,524 M26 227mm rockets with cluster warheads, and 47,000 M509A1 203mm cluster artillery shells for Ukraine's 2S7 Pion self-propelled guns. Because the hardware is American-made, the sale from Turkey's own inventory still requires US authorization under Section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act, which sets a 30-day congressional review period before deliveries can proceed. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch entered the notifications into the record. The arrangement lets Turkey offload older equipment to help fund modernization of its own forces, while Ukraine gains long-range strike and rocket artillery capacity it has been requesting for months. For Washington, routing the transfer through a third country expands the flow of American-designed weapons to Kyiv without drawing directly from US Army stockpiles, which have been strained by simultaneous commitments elsewhere.