The U.S. has approved a new $300 million weapons aid package for Ukraine, its first since late December, funded with cost savings from previous contracts the Pentagon had negotiated to replenish its weapons stockpiles.
Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, on Tuesday said the move was “an extraordinary measure to address some of Ukraine’s most pressing security and defense needs,” including “air defense, artillery and anti-tank requirements,” while urging lawmakers to pass the supplemental bill with further aid for Ukraine that remains stalled in Congress.
“To be clear, we were able to provide this [Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) package] due to negotiated savings on contracts to replace equipment from previous drawdowns for Ukraine. As a result of these cost savings, we were able to authorize a new PDA package for Ukraine today without additional significant impacts to U.S. military readiness,” Ryder told reporters during a briefing. “But this does not change the fact that we urgently need Congress to pass DoD’s supplemental request. Today’s PDA package, while providing urgent capabilities to Ukraine’s forces, is nowhere near enough. And the only way to meet Ukraine’s battlefield needs is for Congress to swiftly pass the supplemental.”
The new $300 million PDA package, which pulls capabilities from current DoD inventories, includes Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, additional ammunition for HIMARS launchers, 155mm artillery rounds including high-explosive and dual-purpose improved cluster munition rounds, 105mm artillery rounds, AT-4 anti-armor systems, additional rounds of small arms ammunition, and demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing, Ryder said on Tuesday.
Ryder noted that negotiations on the replenishment contracts that resulted in achieving the savings had only concluded “in the last couple of weeks.”
“When we sent Ukraine weapons last year, the DoD negotiated contracts to replenish those weapons into U.S. stockpiles,” Ryder said. “We budgeted the full amount of appropriated funds for those contracts. But because of those negotiations, those contracts came in under budget and so we have a modest amount of funding available.”
The Biden administration last approved a $250 million weapons aid package for Ukraine on December 27 that officials at the time said would likely be the last without further supplemental funding from Congress as, even though the Pentagon had roughly $4.2 billion remaining in PDA authority, it had exhausted replenishment funds (Defense Daily, Jan. 5).
Pentagon officials have previously noted a reluctance to dip into the remaining PDA authority without funds in place to replace those capabilities, citing potential impacts to U.S. military readiness.
The Senate’s foreign aid bill, passed in February, includes $19.9 billion in further funding to replenish stockpiles of U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine (Defense Daily, Feb. 13).
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has yet to bring the Senate’s bill up for floor consideration, while Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said last week he’s optimistic the lower chamber will eventually take up the legislation after completing work on final fiscal year 2024 appropriations (Defense Daily, March 7).
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks also urged Congress on Monday to take up the supplemental, noting the Pentagon has yet to replenish $10 billion worth of equipment its already provided to Ukraine.
“We don’t foresee a likely alternative outside of the supplemental funding or having that money added into an appropriation bill in order to achieve the replenishment that we need. So, we are absolutely laser-focused right now on making the case to the American people about the need for that supplemental, about the $50 billion roughly of investment that flows back to the U.S. economy and supports businesses, large and small, throughout the country,” Hicks said during a press briefing on the department’s FY ‘25 budget request.
Ryder said the new $300 million package will likely provide Ukraine with only “weeks” worth of capability,” adding it’s “nowhere even close to what they need to be able to continue to sustain this fight.”
“I don’t anticipate, right now, that we’re going to be able to do future PDA [packages] like this, certainly not in a sustainable way,” Ryder said.