84 American Ballistic Missile Launchers Ready to Hit Key Chinese Infrastructure Targets: ATACMS Arsenal Growing on Taiwan

The United States is manufacturing the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) for deployment of on the island of Taiwan, where they will serve in the Republic of China Army (RoCA) to strengthen its strike capabilities against the Chinese mainland. The transfer of short range ballistic missiles will allow the RoCA to threaten targets on the mainland including both critical infrastructure and major military facilities, and marks a significant escalation in American arms supplies to the service. The ATACMS can be fire from both M270 tracked launch vehicles and M142 wheeled vehicles, with 84 launch vehicles having been ordered by the RoCA. The first batch of 11 launchers was delivered in November 2024, while the first M142 units was formed in early July 2025.

The ATACMS has been extensively combat tested in the Ukrainain theatre, and gained notable success when utilised for strikes both against key infrastructure and against Russian air defence systems. The sheer quantities delivered has meant that although the ballistic missiles are intercepted at a high rate, their occasional successes can cause tens of millions of dollars in damage from a single strike, making their use highly cost effective. Successes have included the destruction of two launchers from S-400 air defence systems in November 2024, destruction of one of the system’s long range radars in January, and the destruction of further radars in June, as well as successful neutralisation of Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile launchers earlier that month. The intensity with which they have been used, however, has resulted in a serious depletion of stocks.

The use of the ATACMS by Ukraine has been heavily facilitated by support both from Western satellites, and from personnel on the ground, which is critical due to its complexity. This has extended to support with inputting targeting coordinates before firing. Although deliveries to the RoCA have been widely compared to parallel efforts to equip the Ukrainain Army with the ballistic missiles for strikes on Russia, they have raised greater controversy due to the status of the Republic of China, which is not recognised as a state by the United States, the United Nations or the vast majority of UN member states. The Republic based in Taipei claims to be the sole legitimate government of the Chinese nation, placing it a state of civil war with the People’s Republic of China government based in Beijing.

High geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington have been a primary factor leading the latter to increase arms supplies to the Republic of China Armed Forces, despite its status as an effective non-state actor. The systems are expected to have much lower utility than in Ukraine due to the mainland’s significantly greater electronic warfare and air defence capabilities than Russia, as well as due to the much smaller numbers being delivered and the smaller size of the front which the mainland’s Chinese People’s Liberation Army will need to defend from attacks, which is just a fraction of the size of the frontier that Russia needs to defend.