US Announces $2.6 Billion Weapons Package for Ukraine

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a new massive $2.6 billion weapons package for Ukraine that includes HIMARS ammunition, missiles for air defense systems, artillery rounds, and other equipment.

The package includes $500 million in the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows President Biden to ship weapons to Ukraine directly from Pentagon stockpiles. The other $2.1 billion will go toward purchasing new equipment for Kyiv that could take months or years to deliver, a program known as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).

The funds for the new weapons are still being drawn from the $45 billion Ukraine aid bill Congress passed in December. So far, the US has authorized about $113 billion to spend on the war.

According to the Pentagon, the Drawdown Authority package includes to following:

Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems
Additional ammunition for HIMARS
155mm and 105mm artillery rounds
120mm mortar rounds
120mm and 105mm tank ammunition
25mm ammunition
Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles
Approximately 400 grenade launchers and 200,000 rounds of ammunition
11 tactical vehicles to recover equipment
61 heavy fuel tankers
10 trucks and 10 trailers to transport heavy equipment
Testing and diagnostic equipment to support vehicle maintenance and repair
Spare parts and other field equipment

The equipment that will be purchased under USAI includes:

Additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS)
Nine counter-Unmanned Aerial System 30mm gun trucks
10 mobile c-UAS laser-guided rocket systems
Three air surveillance radars
30mm and 23mm anti-aircraft ammunition
130mm and 122mm artillery rounds
122mm GRAD rockets
Rocket launchers and ammunition
120mm and 81mm mortar systems
120mm, 81mm, and 60mm mortar rounds
120mm tank ammunition
Javelin anti-armor systems
Anti-armor rockets
Precision aerial munitions
Approximately 3,600 small arms and more than 23,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition
Seven tactical vehicles to recover equipment
Eight heavy fuel tankers and 105 fuel trailers
Armored bridging systems
Four logistics support vehicles
Trucks and ten trailers to transport heavy equipment
Secure communications equipment
SATCOM terminals and services
Funding for training, maintenance, and sustainment

The new package comes as the US is hoping Ukraine will carry out a counteroffensive to regain more territory, but comments from Ukrainian officials have cast doubt on Kyiv’s capability to launch an assault. It’s also unclear if US and other Western support is sustainable as Ukraine has been using massive amounts of artillery ammunition in its battle defending the Donbas city of Bakhmut.

Last month, a Pentagon official told The New York Times that upcoming ammunition shipments were part of a “last ditch effort” to help Ukraine on the battlefield as Ukrainian forces are using artillery rounds at an unsustainable rate. According to a Pentagon fact sheet released Tuesday, the US has pledged over 1.5 million 155mm artillery rounds for Kyiv.

Source: Antiwar

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave. View all posts by Dave DeCamp

Image: Anthony Freda Art – “Endless War”

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