Artillery from Pentagon’s own stocks will reportedly join missiles already underway, bringing total US aid to Kiev past $2.4 billion
US President Joe Biden is looking to mobilize the military industry and send another $750 million worth of the Pentagon’s own weapons stockpile to Ukraine, according to new reports citing anonymous officials in Washington. These are in addition to the $1.7 billion in goods that were sent by American taxpayers to Kiev since February 24, when the conflict escalated.
The US is currently at “lethal”Previously, aid consisted mainly in Stinger portable antiair systems and Javelin antitank missiles. Biden now plans to expand the aid. Reuters quoted two US officials as saying that Biden was preparing to add heavy artillery to the aid. According to the agency, an official announcement may be made within one or two days.
Biden wouldn’t need congressional authorization for this, either, as it would be done under a Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which authorizes transfer from current US military stocks in response to an emergency.
This would put the amount of US military aid to Kiev at over $2.4 billion since Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, when added to the White House’s own figures made public last week.
According to the Pentagon, more than 1,400 Stingers have been sent by the US and 5,000 Javelins already. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, this amounts to about a third the US Javelins and 25% of its Stingers. Current production rates mean that it could take three to four years for Javelins to replenish and five years or more for Stingers.
According to Reuters, the Pentagon and the top eight US arms manufacturers will discuss production levels at a meeting scheduled for Wednesday. Raytheon is expected to be present at the meeting with Lockheed Martin and Boeing as well as Northrop Grumman (General Dynamics), Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman (Raytheon) and L3 Harris Technologies.
Kiev has reached out to US allies far and wide – from its NATO neighbors all the way to South Korea – asking for airplanes, tanks and artillery in particular. German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht stated that Berlin cannot afford to send more weapons, without depleting its stocks. The Rheinmetall conglomerate, however, stated that they could repair some of the old Leopard 1 tanks to send them east by Monday.
Last week, Slovakia announced it would send its only battery of S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine, and get US-made “Patriots” to replace them. The Russian Defense Ministry stated Monday that the battery was destroyed in a missile attack against Dnepropetrovsk (a Ukrainian city called Dnipro) on Monday.
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