(Credit: US Army Photo)   Pentagon $1 Billion Defense aid includes additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) 

By  Gary  Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

PENTAGON   –   WASHINGTON   –  The Biden Pentagon on Monday announced $1 billion in additional military aid to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs. The authorization is the Biden Administration’s eighteenth drawdown of equipment from Department of Defense (DoD) inventories for Ukraine since August 2021. It is the largest single drawdown of U.S. arms and equipment utilizing this authority, and this package provides a significant amount of additional ammunition, weapons, and equipment – the types of which “the Ukrainian people are using so effectively to defend their country”, according to acting Pentagon Press Secretary Todd Breasseale.

Capabilities in this package include:

• Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)
•  75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition
•  20 120mm mortar systems and 20,000 rounds of 120mm mortar ammunition
•  Munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS)
• 1,000 Javelin and hundreds of AT4 anti-armor systems
• 50 armored medical treatment vehicles
• Claymore anti-personnel munitions
• C-4 explosives, demolition munitions, and demolition equipment
• Medical supplies, to include first aid kits, bandages, monitors, and other equipment

SOURCE:  PENTAGON 

“These are all critical capabilities to help the Ukrainians repel the Russian offensive in the east, and also to address evolving developments in the south and elsewhere,” Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, said.

In total, the United States has now committed approximately $9.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration. Since 2014, the United States has committed more than $11.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. The United States has already provided Ukraine with howitzers, Javelins, ammunition, unmanned aerial systems, Mi-17 helicopters, counter artillery radars, tactical vehicles and electronic jamming equipment.  In June, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin announced that President Biden approved an additional $1 billion security assistance package for Ukraine including 18 more 155 mm M777 towed howitzers. The latest delivery of arms from the Pentagon  brings the total amount of U.S. security aid to Ukraine to nearly $10 billion since President Biden took office last year, including more than $9 billion since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

One type of munition the department has sent to Ukraine for use in the HIMARS is the “Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System” or GMLRS, which are precision-guided systems with a range of about 70km.  Kahl said the U.S. had provided “hundreds” of those systems in the past few weeks and that the Ukrainians have been using them successfully. 

“The munitions themselves, these GMLRS … are having a very profound effect,” he said. “This is a 200-pound warhead, it’s kind of the equivalent of an airstrike, frankly — a precision-guided airstrike. These are GPS-guided munitions. They’ve been very effective in hitting things that previously the Ukrainians had difficulty hitting reliably.”  
To meet Ukraine’s evolving battlefield requirements, the United States will continue to work with its Allies and partners to provide Ukraine with key capabilities calibrated to make a difference, the Pentagon said.