DOD announces $6B aid package for Ukraine

The Defense Department, tapping new funds provided by a supplemental spending bill recently signed into law by President Biden, today announced a $6 billion long-term military aid package for Ukraine, which follows closely behind a $1 billion immediate transfer of U.S. weapons.

The package, provided through the previously empty Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, includes:

• Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems;
• Additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);
• New equipment to “integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles, and radars” with Ukrainian air defense systems;
• Counter-drone systems and equipment;
• Munitions for laser-guided rocket systems;
• Multimission radars;
• Counter-artillery radars;
• Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
• 155mm and 152mm artillery rounds;
• Precision aerial munitions;
• Switchblade and Puma Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS);
• Tactical vehicles to tow weapons and equipment;
• Demolition munitions;
• Components to support Ukrainian production of UAS and other capabilities;
• Small arms and additional small arms ammunition; and
• Other items and support for training, maintenance, and sustainment activities.

“We're going to do everything we can to get that security assistance to the Ukrainians as quickly as possible,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said today during a Pentagon press conference.

Prior to today’s announcement, the last tranche of USAI funding was announced in November, at which point the fund was exhausted and in need of congressional replenishment. Additional funding was not granted until last week when Congress, after months of partisan arguing, agreed to a massive supplemental spending deal that would aid Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the U.S. defense industrial base.

The USAI package, unlike the $1 billion immediate transfer of DOD weapons to Ukraine via Presidential Drawdown Authority, is used to put specific weapons systems on contact with the U.S. defense industrial base, something Austin said will benefit national security in the long run.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown said both aid packages will help “shape the future” because the additional munitions capabilities will mean that the Ukrainians “don't necessarily have to ration they way they have because the Ukrainians know things are coming out of this package.”

The aid package released today commemorates the two-year anniversary of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of more than 50 nations that has pledged continued support for Ukraine. Austin, who hosted a virtual meeting with the group today, said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was also part of the call.

“This coalition is still standing strong,” Austin said.