The US Department of Defense has authorized another presidential drawdown of security assistance valued at up to $725 million to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs.
The Friday authorization, which allows the Pentagon to quickly transfer equipment from US military stocks, is the Biden administration’s 23rd drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.
According to the Pentagon, the new security assistance package includes additional ammunition for HIMARS, 23,000 155mm artillery rounds, 500 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds, 5,000 155mm rounds of remote anti-armor mine (RAAM) systems, 5,000 anti-tank weapons, and more than 200 Humvees.
The package also includes an unspecified amount of AGM-88 high-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs) that were integrated on Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29s. The Pentagon first confirmed in August this year it had supplied HARM missiles to Ukraine, which seek out enemy radars employed by air defense systems and destroy them.
Ukraine has meanwhile shown video footage of the Northrop Grumman-developed missile being launched from one of its fighter aircraft.
One of the 🇺🇦 pilots has made a footage of the MiG-29 fighter jets combat operations.
— Ukrainian Air Force (@KpsZSU) August 30, 2022
🇺🇦 pilot Ivan dedicates this video to major Yevhen Lysenko, his fallen brother in arms, who heroically died in an aerial fight against the 🇷🇺 invaders on March 9. pic.twitter.com/eUVYIAboDr
The presidential drawdown from October 14 follows US Secretary of Defense Austin’s gathering of defense ministers of nearly 50 countries at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels this week, at which leaders committed to providing additional security assistance.
As a result of the meeting, Germany delivered the first of four IRIS-T air-defense systems committed to Ukraine. This critical donation will help Ukraine better defend its civilians from Russian airstrikes. Germany also recently announced that it will deliver more MARS rocket systems and howitzers.
Spain announced it will provide four HAWK launchers to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense, while Norway, Germany, and Denmark invested into Slovakia’s indigenous production of Zuzana II howitzers for Ukraine.
Additionally, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom committed to sending air-defense missiles for the NASAMS system that has been supplied to Ukraine by the US.
