The Russia-Ukraine conflict is now in its 402nd day.
Saturday, April 1, 2023
A new $2.6 billion US military aid package that could include air surveillance radars, anti-tank rockets and fuel trucks for Ukraine's fight against Russia is expected to be announced as soon as Monday, three US officials have said.
A half a dozen types of munitions, including tank munitions, are also expected to be on the list of equipment that could be finalised over this weekend, the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said, adding that the dollar amount and specific equipment in the package could change.
Also slated for inclusion were precision aerial munitions, bridging equipment Ukraine would use to assault Russian positions, recovery vehicles to help disabled heavy equipment like tanks and additional rounds for NASAMS air defences that the US and allies have given to Kiev.
The aid was comprised of $2.1 billion in weapons aid coming from Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding that allows President Joe Biden's administration to buy weapons from industry rather than from US weapons stocks.The remaining $500 million, mainly comprised of munitions to help Kiev push a spring offensive against Russia's offensive, was expected to come from Presidential Drawdown Authority funds, which allow the president to take from current US stocks in an emergency.
1900 GMT — US has small stockpile of long-range missiles to hand them over to Ukraine: Pentagon
>The United States has a small stockpile of long-range missiles, which limits the possibility of handing them over to Ukraine, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley has said in an online interview with the Defense One media outlet, TASS news agency reported.
Asked whether Washington was planning to supply Ukraine with ATACMS [Army Tactical Missile System] missiles with a strike range of up to 300 kilometres, Milley replied: "Well, there's a policy decision to date not to, so far. And I would never predict anything on the table, off the table, for the future."
"But from a military standpoint, we have relatively few ATACMS, we do have to make sure that we maintain our own munitions inventories, as well," he continued. "And the range of the weapon - I think there's a little bit of overstating of what an ATACMS can do and can't do.""You're looking at a single shot, so think of a musket versus a repeating rifle. Whereas the GMLRS fires six shots, and ATACMs fires one. Now the range of the ATACMS is longer, but there's other systems they can get you that range," the high-ranking military official said.
"There’s UAVs, for example, that could do it, and the Brits have a couple of systems. So, those are some things that we're looking at to give them a little bit more legs. But right now, we're not providing the ATACMS," Milley said.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
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