They have all been destroyed if we had given them to Ukraine.
Ukraine's military, which was the largest in Europe other than Russia's, has been fed into a meat grinder with more than 150,000 dead and 400,000 dead or wounded. Russia has up to a 10-1 end in ammo fired per day and has a huge edge in manufacturing ammo and weapons. Russia controls the airspace and has crippled Ukraine's electric grid.
You funny.
We only sent Ukraine 20 HIMARS so far, all surely need maintenance / repair at times, and yet well documented HIMARS strikes continue in plentitude (for only 20 launchers, and that they by design DO spend a lot of time on the move).
Granted that much higher numbers of HIMARS almost surely means a lower ratio of decoys to real, and increased chances of getting hit by pure luck if nothing else. But there is no CREDIBLE EVIDENCE to show that rapid, heavy losses of HIMARS would occur with a mere 60 in country. They would still be too scattered / dispersed, and too mobile.
I no more believe Russian claims of Ukrainian casualties vs. Russian losses than I believed Baghdad Bob, or, without outside & reliable corroboration, Ukraine’s claims. (Ukraine’s claims regarding territory held or lost have over time held up respectably well, however.)
Some neutral sources speculate 100k Ukrainians killed. As Ukraine is almost certainly willing to lose as many as 1 million soldiers at something around the present rate, to hold their country, we are looking at Russia trying to keep this up for 10 years, with energy export revenues now slumped, and NATU / EU / S. Korea, etc., basically with over 40x Russia’s GDP, ramping up.
The real problem is that timidity on Germany and the USA’s part is gonna get ~500k Ukrainians killed in a “grinder” that could be shortened by better supply to Ukraine, not Joe Biden’s weak stream. Most of the gear is already paid for, anyway.
As for airspace, tell you what. Please arrange to have a 2 seat Russian jet fly you over, say, Kharkhiv. Also arrange same in a Ukrainian jet for me. Let’s see who comes back. I’m an old dude, what the hell. It’d be “fun”.
Nice try, tovarisch.