The US is sending Ukraine a new $2.1 billion weapons package, the Pentagon said Friday, including a new ground-launched, bomb-tipped rocket.
(Bloomberg) — The US is sending Ukraine a new $2.1 billion weapons package, the Pentagon said Friday, including a new ground-launched, bomb-tipped rocket.
The latest aid to Ukraine includes $425 million in equipment drawn from existing US stockpiles and $1.75 billion in contracts to the defense industry, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters at the Pentagon.
Among the materiel from Pentagon stockpiles: More ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as Himars; additional 155mm artillery rounds and 120mm mortar rounds; 190 heavy machine guns with thermal imagery sights and associated ammunition to counter drones and 181 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.
The bulk of the security assistance will take months or longer to deliver because it will come from weapons yet to be produced or completed. Those weapons include the hybrid weapon from Boeing Co.
It combines two proven devices: an Air Force Small-Diameter Bomb guided by GPS satellites that’s currently in wide use and an Army rocket already being operated by Ukraine’s forces. An industry official said it would take about nine months for the first deliveries once the Air Force issues a contract.
Other weapons to be put under contract include two Hawk air defense firing units, anti-aircraft guns and ammunition and equipment to integrate air defense launchers, missiles, and radars with Ukraine’s air defense systems. Included in the security package will be counter-drone systems, surveillance radars, Puma drones and secure communications equipment.
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