The U.S. has approved another $600 million weapons aid package for Ukraine, with the latest deal covering additional munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) launchers and 36,000 105mm artillery rounds.
The new package, which is the 21st drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories, also includes 1,000 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds, four more counter-artillery radars and counter-drone systems.
“With admirable grit and determination, the people of Ukraine are defending their homeland and fighting for their future. The United States is providing Ukraine military assistance alongside our Allies and partners from more than 50 countries to support its defense. The capabilities we are delivering are carefully calibrated to make the most difference on the battlefield and strengthen Ukraine’s hand at the negotiating table when the time is right,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday evening.
Ukraine is also set to receive four trucks and eight trailers for transporting heavy equipment, mine clearing capabilities, Claymore anti-personnel munitions, demolition munitions, small arms and ammunition, night vision devices and cold weather gear.
“In terms of the cold weather gear, we’re talking things like parkas, gloves, the kinds of things that you would use for conducting operations in cold weather,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters on Friday.
The State Department noted the U.S. has now committed $15.8 billion security to assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including $15.1 billion from the start of Russia’s invasion in February, when factoring for drawdown packages, equipment in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) announcements and Foreign Military Financing (FMF) plans.
Along with a $675 million weapons aid package announced last week, the State Department detailed plans to provide $2.2 billion in FMF funds to Ukraine and 18 other European nations “who are most potentially at risk for future Russian aggression” (Defense Daily, Sept. 8).
The State Department said the move will help those allies and partners in backfilling their inventories of capabilities sent to Ukraine, with the FMF program essentially providing loans to purchase U.S.-made military equipment.
The Pentagon last week also gave a breakdown of the $1.2 billion awarded to help replenish stockpiles of equipment sent to Ukraine, noting it has identified $7 billion in replacement actions, as well as the $1.2 billion in USAI contracts awarded to date of the $4.8 billion in previously announced capabilities to be procured via the program (Defense Daily, Sept. 9).
The Army this week awarded a $311 million production order for Javelin missiles to Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Raytheon Technologies [RTX], which jointly manufacture the weapon. The order includes replenishing 1,800 rounds sent to Ukraine (Defense Daily, Sept. 14).