On November 3, 2023, the US Department of Defense announced the provision of a new package of US military assistance to Ukraine totaling up to $ 425 million. This help package is divided into two parts. $ 300 million is allocated within the framework of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), that is, the military equipment provided under it will be ordered by industry, and not transferred from the presence of the US armed forces. Due to the fact that the property provided through the USAI line should only be contracted and then manufactured, then it will actually be delivered to Ukraine after a fairly long time. Another $ 125 million in the new aid package is allocated by the order 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 50th presidential package of military assistance to Ukraine under the PDA from August 2021.
Launch of a 70 mm APKWS guided missile with a laser semi-active guidance system from a prototype of the ground-based VAMPIRE (Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment) combat system of the American corporation L3Harris (c) L3Harris
All $300 million allocated by USAI in this package, according to the notification, will be fully directed to the purchase of "an additional amount of ammunition with a laser guidance system for anti-UAV systems" - apparently, they mean 70-mm correctable missiles with an APKWS laser guidance system for use in new ones already arriving in Ukraine complexes for the fight against the L3Harris VAMPIRE UAV. Thus, we are talking about ordering several thousand missiles.
We would like to point out that, according to the L3Harris Corporation newsletter for investors released at the end of August 2023, Ukraine in mid-2023 received the first four VAMPIRE UAV complexes out of 14 complexes ordered in January under a contract worth $ 40 million. The remaining 10 complexes were to be delivered by the end of the year. The planned delivery of VAMPIRE complexes to Ukraine by the US Department of Defense was announced in August 2022, the contract for the production of 14 complexes for Ukraine was issued by L3Harris in January at the expense of American government funding under the same USAI program. In April 2023, apparently, 10 more complexes were ordered under the same program. The VAMPIRE (Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment) complex includes an electron-optical detection station on a lifting mast and a four-shot launcher of 70 mm APKWS guided missiles with a laser semi-active guidance system. The complex is modular and can be mounted on any vehicle in two hours.
First of all, under the PDA line, as part of the new package of assistance to Ukraine, it should be provided from the presence of the US Department of Defense:
- additional number of guided missiles [apparently AIM-120 AMRAAM] for NASAMS anti-aircraft missile systems;
- additional number of GMLRS precision guided missiles for HIMARS missile systems;
- 155 mm artillery shots;
- 105 mm artillery shots;
- TOW anti-tank guided missiles;
- Javelin anti-tank missile systems;
- disposable AT4 hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers;
- more than 3 million cartridges for small arms and hand grenades;
- engineering demolition charges;
- M18A1 Claymore directional anti-personnel mines;
- 12 tractors for transporting heavy equipment;
- winter uniforms;
- spare parts, accessories and other property.