On July 7, 2023, the US Department of Defense announced the provision of a new package of US military assistance to Ukraine totaling up to $ 800 million. Thus, the total amount of US military assistance officially allocated to Kiev since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 now amounts to more than $ 41.3 billion, and the total amount of US military assistance to Ukraine since 2014 has exceeded $44.1 billion.
Loading of 155 mm cluster active-rocket projectiles M864 DPICM by soldiers of the 82nd Artillery Regiment of the 1st Armored Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division of the US Army during live firing during exercises in South Korea, 09/20/2016 (c) Gabriel Jenko / US Army
The new package of military assistance to Ukraine is allocated by the orders of the US President within his administrative powers (Presidential Drawdown of Security Assistance - PDA) and is an operational allocation of property from the presence of the US Department of Defense. This is the 42nd presidential package of military assistance to Ukraine under the PDA from August 2021.
As usual, since the beginning of 2023, the United States in most cases does not indicate the amount of ammunition and parts of weapons transferred to Ukraine. As part of this package, the PDA should be provided to Ukraine from the presence of the US Department of Defense:
- additional ammunition [anti-aircraft guided missiles and anti-missiles] for the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system;
- portable anti-aircraft missile systems Stinger;
- AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air guided missiles for use as anti-aircraft;
- additional number of GMLRS precision guided missiles for HIMARS missile systems;
- 105 mm and 155 mm artillery rounds, including 155 mm DPICM cluster artillery shells [according to American media - M864];
- 31 155 mm howitzer [apparently M777];
- 32 M2 Bradley Infantry fighting vehicles;
- 32 Stryker armored personnel carriers;
- Javelin anti-tank missile systems;
- TOW anti-tank guided missiles;
- "other anti-tank systems" and shots to them;
- Penguin unmanned aircraft systems of Edge Autonomy company;
- precision-guided aerial munitions [apparently guided JDAM aerial bombs];
- 27 evacuation vehicles;
- 10 trailer cars;
- small arms and more than 28 million cartridges for small arms and hand grenades;
- mine clearance equipment;
- explosive charges and other mine-resistant property;
- spare parts and other field equipment.
The most resonant resonant part of the package was the provision to Ukraine of an unspecified number of 155 mm DPICM (Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition) artillery cluster shells. According to the publications of the American media, we are talking about 155-mm cluster active-rocket projectiles M864 release 1980-1990-ies (serial production was started in 1987), each equipped with 72 submunitions - 48 cumulative type M42 and 24 cumulative fragmentation type M46. The M864 projectile, when fired from a 155-mm/39 caliber gun, has a range of up to 28.4 km.
The issue of the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine has long been debatable in Washington, as it contradicts the International Convention on Cluster Munitions of 2008. Although the United States has not signed this convention, however, it has taken measures to significantly reduce the number of such munitions and has a policy of not supplying them abroad. The US Congress banned the US government from transferring cluster munitions abroad with a percentage of non-rupture of sub-ammunition of more than 1%, although it was stipulated that the US president could circumvent this ban if necessary "for reasons of national security" - it was this reservation that was now used by the Biden administration. Russia and Ukraine are not parties to the convention.
US President Joe Biden, in a comment to CNN on July 7, said that the decision to transfer cluster shells to Ukraine was "difficult" and was made "for a transitional period", "until we produce more [conventional] 155 mm ammunition."
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense for Political Affairs Colin H. Kahl told reporters at a briefing at the Pentagon on July 7 that the supply of cluster projectiles, that with the decision to supply Ukraine with cluster shells, "we will be able to immediately provide Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of additional artillery ammunition. This decision ensures that we will be able to maintain our support for Ukraine, bringing us closer to the moment when we will be able to produce enough artillery ammunition on a monthly basis throughout the coalition." Kahl also stated that;
"Compared to Russian cluster munitions, the DPICM shells that we supply to Ukraine have an extremely low failure rate or unexploded submunitions. The DPICM ammunition that we supply to Ukraine will consist only of ammunition with an unexploded submunition ratio of less than 2.35%. Compare this with Russia, which uses cluster munitions throughout Ukraine with an unexploded submunition rate of 30 to 40%. In the first year of the conflict alone, Russian cluster munitions fired from a range of weapons systems probably scattered tens of millions of submunitions or bombs across Ukraine."
"We will be delivering our most advanced DPICMS with a non-rupture ratio of less than 2.35%, which has been demonstrated by five comprehensive tests conducted by the US Department of Defense between 1998 and 2020. So we are confident in these numbers."
"We are working with Ukraine to minimize the risks associated with this decision. The Ukrainian government has provided us with written guarantees of responsible use of DPICM, including that they will not use shells in urban conditions with civilians and that they will record where they use these shells, which will simplify subsequent mine clearance work. Ukraine has also committed to post-conflict mine clearance to mitigate any potential damage to the civilian population. The United States has already invested more than $95 million in Ukraine's mine clearance activities, and we will provide additional support to help Ukraine mitigate the effects of the use of cluster munitions by both sides in this conflict."
"By providing DPICM artillery ammunition to Ukraine, we will provide the Ukrainian military with a sufficient amount of artillery ammunition for many months to come. During this period, the United States, our allies and partners will continue to increase their defense and industrial capabilities to support Ukraine."
Also, from the bmpd side, we point out that, taking into account this new package of military assistance, the total number of M2A2 Bradley BMP transferred by the Americans to Ukraine has reached 186 (plus four vehicles of advanced artillery observers and the M7A2 Bradley Fire Support Team), the total number of Stryker armored personnel carriers transferred is 157 units, and the number of 155-mm howitzers is 198 (including, apparently, 180 towed M777 and 18 self-propelled M109A6 Paladin).