The Senate’s fiscal 2024 supplemental package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan includes $686 million in counter unmanned aircraft systems funding for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and $157 million for the command to replenish RTX [RTX] Standard Missile-2 missiles fired by U.S. Navy destroyers against Houthi kamikaze drones, U.S. Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, the head of CENTCOM, said on March 21.
In response to a question from Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.) at a House Armed Services Committee (HASC) hearing on whether the U.S. defense industrial base needs help, Kurilla said, “It does, and it needs funding that the supplemental [provides], if passed.”
“That also resupplies the weapons that I have fired in the Red Sea,” he said. “But a lot of that goes to the industrial base which also allows multi-year production. They want to see the incentive of how long it’s gonna last for so we do need that.”
Some of the funding in the supplemental is for RTX Coyote interceptors, according to a DoD official. The Army plans to buy at least 6,700 Coyote interceptors between fiscal year 2025 and 2029 to counter enemy drones “operating at various speeds and altitudes which are targeting both U.S. and their allies’ interests at home and abroad” (Defense Daily, Dec. 21, 2023).
Last month, the Senate passed its $95.3 billion supplemental bill, which includes $60 billion for Ukraine–at least half of which is to go to restock U.S. defense inventories or to buy weapons for Ukraine from U.S. defense companies (Defense Daily, Feb. 13). House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has yet to bring the bill up for consideration on the House floor.
“I agree with the members across the aisle that we need to take a vote on this,” Giménez said of House Democrats at the HASC hearing on March 21. “It would damage American reputation in the world, if we walk away from Ukraine. We made them a promise back in the 90s that we’d have their back. They’re fighting the fight. All they want are the guns and the weapons. Just because [President] Joe Biden doesn’t secure the southern border doesn’t mean that Vladimir Putin can take Ukraine. That correlation, to me, is insane.”
House Republicans have used the supplemental’s focus on Central Command and Indo-Pacific Command to throw shade at the Biden administration for not including border funding in the bill.
“In six months, we haven’t had a vote on the Ukraine supplemental in the House in any shape, manner, or form,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), HASC’s ranking member, told his House GOP colleagues during the March 21 hearing. “If you actually support Ukraine, put a vote on in any form one way or the other–divide it up, this amount, that amount. But you haven’t given the House a vote, and now Ukraine is hanging on by their finger nails, and the only vehicle we have that could pass is the one the Senate passed.
“So, if you got something else, a) I wish you had given it to us months ago and b) any day, any time, put something on the floor to give us the opportunity to at least have a vote to support Ukraine,” Smith said. “‘Well, we could do this. We could do that. Well, what if we did it this way? What if we did it that way?’ That’s a fascinating conversation where the Ukrainians are dying and Putin continues to think he’s gonna be able to take Ukraine.”
Smith said that six months ago, he met with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and “Kevin was speculating, ‘We could do this. We could do that. What if we did it this way? What if we did it that way?’ And I said, ‘Wonderful. Just do it.’ I want to try to find some way to get it done.”
The Pentagon has exhausted replenishment funds to restock supplies of weapons provided to Ukraine, while Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said last week that DoD still has $10 billion worth of equipment it has yet to backfill.
The $48.4 billion for Ukraine in the Senate’s supplemental bill specifically includes $13.8 billion in additional Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds to purchase U.S.-made weapons for Kyiv, $19.9 billion to replenish stockpiles of U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine, $1.6 billion in Foreign Military Finance (FMF) assistance “to address Ukraine’s and other regional partners’ air defense, artillery, maritime security, and maintenance and sustainment requirements,” and $14.8 billion to continue DoD efforts to support Ukraine with military training and intelligence sharing.
Following Hamas’ attacks against Israel on Oct. 7 and as the country continues its military campaign in Gaza, the Senate’s bill supports $10.6 billion for Israel, to include $4 billion for procurement of Iron Dome air defense system and David’s Sling short-range ballistic missile defense capabilities, $1.2 billion for Israel’s Iron Beam laser-based defense system, and $3.5 billion in FMF funds to purchase U.S.-made defense equipment.
The bill also includes $3.3 billion for submarine industrial base investments, $2 billion in FMF funds for Indo-Pacific partners, including Taiwan, $1.9 billion to replenish stockpiles of U.S. equipment provided to Taiwan and $2.4 billion to support “U.S. operations in the U.S. Central Command area of operations and to replace combat expenditures for weapons in the Red Sea.”