Well, to be fair, I’m sure anything we give Ukraine is 20 years out-of-date.
They never export cutting-edge stuff. Once it’s sold/given away, you can’t control what happens to it.
And Moscow doesn't have the technology base to copy even that. They're dependent on smuggling chips from the West to make washing machines.
“20 years out of date”
How right you are. The ATACMS were designed in the 80s. The Russians shoot a large majority of them down already. 20 years out of date but the absolute best we’ve got.
I’m sure we haven’t forgotten the British game of building boxes full of fantastically complicated electronics that did nothing, damaging them as if from a plane crash, and leaving them where the Germans could find them.
That particular item is not old. It’s in current inventory and currently in manufacture. However, the only thing they might get from this are clues on how to jam to guidance.
The problem for them would be manufacture. Some components are likely specific for the weapon and are made either in house or by a specialty firm.
Let’s face it. When you’re in a war the enemy will get working samples of your technology. It’s unavoidable. Assuming they could reverse engineer it, they wouldn’t have a working production model in the next ten years.
I was using cp/m and dr-dos when the ATACMS were being made.
The USSR was on the cutting edge in material sciences and math back then, as the USSR collapsed so did the funding of their university system...
And the Russian brain drain increased... Get out while the getting is good.
Yes, they still have some good engineers who can copy the old controllers, but they too are also old stuff...