The wreckage of an ATACMS MGM-140A missile in Berdiansk
The wreckage of an ATACMS MGM-140A missile in Berdiansk
MGM-140A ATACMS Block I
Original model with 165 km range, inertial navigation and 950 M74 anti-personnel and anti-materiel (APAM) grenades.
Manufacture date 10/96?
There are Russian tanks from ww2 so this is quite modern already!
Here's a fun exercise. Sync up the manufacture dates on weapons, their expiry, and maybe global conflicts breaking out to clear out old inventory.
You die so Lockheed Martin keeps making billions.
We pretty much continuously produce weapons, so of course you're gonna find a few that are expiring right about now, because it's cheaper for the US Government to pass them off to be used than it is to dispose of them safely ourselves. There are ATACMS that expired a decade ago, and were disposed of without starting a new war.
In addition, the ATACMS program specifically ended in 2007, so under a Service Life Extension Program, the US Army has been pretty continuously refurbishing them to maintain inventory. All in all, this is a prime example of confirmation bias.
But also yes, defense contractors are the only ones who profit from war.
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I think 140A has a 128 km range, 140B has a 165 km range but only ~300 submunitions.