U.S. approves sale up to $10 billion sale of HIMARS rocket launchers and ammunition to Poland- Pentagon

(Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of long-range missiles and rockets to Poland in a deal valued at up to $10 billion, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

The sale comes as Kyiv has praised their U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) rocket launchers for their battlefield successes such as destroying Russian warehouses and command posts.

The package includes 18 HIMARS launchers, 45 of the 185-mile (297-km) range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles and more than 1,000 Guided Multiple Rocket Launch System (GMLRS) rockets.

The United States has rebuffed Ukraine's requests for ATACMS missiles. Poland would not be able to transfer any ATACMS to Ukraine without U.S. approval.

(Reporting by Mie Stone in Washington and Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)