PENTAGON SENDING UKRAINE ADDITIONAL MILITARY EQUIPMENT
Surveillance drones, laser-guided rockets set for shipment
The Biden administration is expanding its delivery of commercially available weapons and military equipment to Ukraine, detailing Friday $136 million in purchases of aerial drones, laser-guided rockets, binoculars and other items that will be shipped soon.
The weapons and equipment, to be purchased from U.S. companies and sent into Ukraine, represent a different category of military assistance than the vast quantities of armaments that the United States already has provided from existing Pentagon stocks.
This round of commercially available weapons includes $22.6 million worth of 70mm rockets — known as the advanced precision kill weapon system — that can be fired from helicopters, and $17.8 million in additional Switchblade drones, which can be armed and flown into Russian armored vehicles or troop formations. The Pentagon also is buying several Puma drones, whose principal function is to conduct surveillance.
Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters Friday that the Defense Department has $300 million in congressionally approved funding to spend on commercially available military equipment. Separately, LaPlante said, the Pentagon is now negotiating with defense contractors to replace stocks of anti-aircraft Stinger missiles and anti-armor Javelin missiles that the United States already provided to Ukraine from its military stocks. Thousands of missiles already have been sent to Ukraine.
“We are in contact with industry every day as our requirements evolve and will continue to utilize all available tools to support Ukraine’s armed forces in the face of Russian aggression,” LaPlante said.
The advanced precision kill system works by converting low-cost ammunition into guided weapons. U.S. forces have used it to supplement the firepower on a variety of aircraft, including helicopters and fighter jets.
The hand-launched Puma drones are used primarily for aerial surveillance and are likely to expand Ukraine’s intelligence-gathering capabilities.
LaPlante said in an interview that these commercial deliveries complement the weapons shipments that the Pentagon has delivered to Ukraine from its existing stocks. Two more of those bulk transfers are being finalized and are expected to start shipping soon, he said.
The Pentagon received more than 300 responses from defense contractors after it issued a request last month seeking information about commercially available weapons that might prove helpful to Ukraine, LaPlante said.
As defense officials consider which weapons to send to Ukraine, they are evaluating not only what’s available, but how much can be provided without hindering U.S. national security, how easy it will be for Ukrainian soldiers to learn how to use such systems, and whether there are classified components on them that could complicate exporting them, LaPlante said. While many weapons do have classified aspects, some also come in readily exportable versions, he added.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers earlier this week that the Pentagon is “in pretty good shape” when it comes to supplying Ukraine with weapons to beat back the Russian invasion while still maintaining minimum required stockpiles for protecting the United States.