On November 4, 2022, the US Department of Defense announced the allocation of a new package of US military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $ 400 million.Thus, the total amount of US military aid officially allocated to Kiev since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 now amounts to more than $18.2 billion. The total amount of US military aid to Ukraine since 2014 has reached $21 billion.
Elements of the American MIM-23 I-HAWK medium-range anti-aircraft missile system (c) www.military.africaThe peculiarity of this military assistance package is that it represents a targeted allocation of budgetary funds in accordance with the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) program for the purchase and production of new weapons and military equipment from industry for subsequent transfer to Ukraine.
The announced package under the USAI program is the first allocated under this program in the 2023 fiscal year (beginning on October 1).
At the same time, the bulk of the military equipment ordered by USAI will arrive in Ukraine only after a considerable time.
The new USAI military assistance package includes (recall that we are talking about plans to order new production property from industry):
- financing the repair and modernization of HAWK anti-aircraft missile systems from availability for inclusion in future military assistance packages allocated by orders of the US President within his administrative powers (Presidential Drawdown of Security Assistance - PDA);
- 45 upgraded T-72B tanks with improved optics, communications and protection;
- 1100 complexes of tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (barrage ammunition) Phoenix Ghost;
- 40 river armored boats;
- financing the repair of 250 M1117 ASV wheeled armored vehicles (from storage);
- secure tactical radio communication and surveillance systems;
- financing of training, maintenance and provision.
The 45 T-72B tanks included in this package with modernization are part of an agreement signed on November 4 by the Ministries of Defense of the United States, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic on the supply of 90 T-72B tanks to Ukraine with their modernization. The tanks themselves are reportedly to be obtained "from the presence of the Czech defense industry." As part of the agreement, the purchase and modernization of 45 of these tanks is funded by the US Department of Defense, and the remaining 45 by the Dutch Ministry of Defense. The total cost of the program is $90 million. Work on the repair and modernization of tanks (above mentioned equipping them with "advanced optics, communications and protection"), apparently, will be carried out in the Czech Republic. It is stated that the first batch of tanks will be delivered to Ukraine by the end of December 2022 and the rest in 2023.
From the bmpd side, we point out that it is unclear where the "Czech industry" will take tanks of the T-72B modification, which it has never produced (unless, of course, there is no error in specifying the modification, and we are not talking about T-72M/M1 tanks). It is possible that in fact the T-72B tanks were bought in a third country, and by "Czech defense industry" we mean the notorious Czech company Excalibur Army (as part of the Czechoslovak Group), specializing in such transactions.
Also in the new package of assistance to Ukraine, attention is drawn to the financing of preparations for the transfer to Ukraine of the old American MIM-23 HAWK C storage medium-range air defense systems. Earlier at the end of October, there were reports that the United States was considering transferring the HAWK C storage air defense system to Ukraine for use against Russian cruise missiles and barrage ammunition. It is unclear how many HAWK air defense systems remained in the US warehouses, since the complex was decommissioned by the US Army in 1994, and the Marine Corps in 2002. Earlier, Spain announced the planned delivery of the HAWK air defense system to Ukraine (apparently, one battery) from the availability. It should be noted that there is a variant of integrating the HAWK air defense system with the modern AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar used as part of the NASAMS air defense system (the so-called HAWK XXI, which is in service in Turkey and Iraq, and previously used by Norway).
In addition, it is worth noting the financing of the preparation of the transfer to Ukraine of 250 wheeled armored vehicles M1117 ASV Guardian. Produced by the Textron Corporation, the 14-ton armored car M1117 Guardian (Armored Security Vehicle - ASV 150) with a 4x4 wheel formula, which is a development of the famous BTR Commando, was originally developed for the American military police, but in the 2000s was actively purchased by the US Army as a kind of "light ersatz MRAP" for use in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of HMMWV vehicles. In total, the US Army purchased 2,058 units plus 844 vehicles of advanced M1200 aircraft manufacturers based on them. By now, the main part of the M1117 machines has been transferred to storage as redundant and is now being distributed to other countries. At the beginning of 2021, the United States and Greece concluded an intergovernmental agreement on the transfer of 1,200 M1117 ASV Guardian vehicles to Greece from the presence of the US Department of Defense, their deliveries to Greece were started in December 2021. In 2021-2022, the United States also transferred M1117 vehicles to the Colombian Army (145 units) and the Kosovo Security Forces (55 vehicles).
