Russian hackers attack HIMARS producer Lockheed Martin

Russian hackers have launched "a new type of attack" on American military company Lockheed Martin, the maker of the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), the weapon the hackers believe is responsible for thousands of deaths in Ukraine, according to a pro-Moscow news website.

The Kremlin-backed Life website reported that the cyberattack by the Killnet and Killmilk hacker groups took place at 7 AM on Aug.1, according to Newsweek. 

"The notorious HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, supplied to Ukraine by the aforementioned military-industrial corporation, allow the criminal authorities of the Kyiv regime to kill civilians, destroy the infrastructure and social facilities of the still temporarily occupied Ukraine," the hackers said in a statement reported by Life.

Earlier on July 28, a Russian military expert claimed on state television that Russia had come up with a "secret development" that allows it to hack into the HIMARS systems.

On July 22, members of Killnet cybergroup said that they were using a new type of attack, which had no equal in this area.

"This is a new technology that we are using for the first time against the world's largest arms manufacturer—Lockheed Martin," Life reported at the time, citing the Killnet members. 

The HIMARS has been supplied to Ukraine by the United States, and the weapons have been touted as "a gamechanger" by senior Western military officials. The U.S. has promised Ukraine up to sixteen of the units, which can be mounted to a standard U.S. Army M1140 truck frame.

Each HIMARS can carry six GPS-guided missiles that can be reloaded in about a minute with a small team consisting of only a driver, gunner and launcher section chief.

The range of the weapons is 80km (50 miles), almost double the ranger of M777 howitzers, another Western-made weapon that Ukraine has been using against Russian forces since May.