Pentagon announces $1.3B Ukraine weapons package, includes Phoenix Ghost drones, mine-clearing equipment
Fox News
The Department of Defense announced Wednesday a security package worth more than a billion dollars aimed at bolstering Ukrainian forces.
The spending package, which carries a $1.3 billion price tag, will provide munitions and air defense resources to the Ukrainian military as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).
The massive spending package will include military resources that include four National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and munitions, 152mm artillery rounds, mine-clearing equipment, Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles, Phoenix Ghost and Switchblade Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), precision aerial munitions, counter-UAS and electronic warfare detection equipment and 150 fuel trucks.
Also included in the package are 115 tactical vehicles to tow and haul equipment, 50 tactical vehicles to recover equipment, port and harbor security equipment, tactical secure communications systems, and support for training, maintenance and sustainment activities.
Weapons manufacturers will provide the arms purchased by the United States to Kyiv through President Biden’s USAI program so that U.S. weapons stocks will not be depleted.
The Pentagon has sent more than $10.8 billion in security assistance for Ukraine under Biden’s USAI program in seven separate installments. This reported package would be the eighth, bringing the total to $12.1 billion.
In total, the United States has committed more than $42 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Biden took office, including more than $41.3 billion since Russia began its invasion last year.
That assistance includes more than 2,000 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, more than 10,000 Javelin anti-armor systems, more than 70,000 other anti-armor systems and munitions, 198 155 mm howitzers with more than 2 million 155 mm artillery rounds, as well as rockets, tactical support vehicles, mortar systems and medical supplies.
Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo and Liz Friden contributed to this report.