WASHINGTON – The White House on Thursday authorized $450 million in additional military aid to Ukraine, which is expected to receive four more. rocket launcher which the government in Kyiv has said it is necessary to push back the Russian army in the Donbas.
The spokesman for the National Security Council, John F. Kirby, announced the new “drawback” of goods from the Pentagon’s stockpile Thursday afternoon.
The latest announcement brings the total amount of military aid from the United States to Ukraine to $6.8 billion since the start of the Biden administration — much of which has been committed since Russia invaded Ukraine on September 12. 24, according to a Pentagon statement. emailed to reporters shortly after the White House briefing.
The truck-mounted launchers, known as the M142 HIMARS – for the High Mobility Artillery Missile System – carry six guided missiles in a disposable “pod” that can be quickly discarded once it has been removed. ammunition was fired, allowing the three-man crew to quickly hoist a newly fully loaded group into position.
The missile typically carries a 200-pound high explosive warhead to targets 43 miles away and can strike within 30 feet of their programmed aiming point.
The combination of HIMARS launchers and the guided missiles they fire represents a qualitative leap for the capabilities of Ukrainian artillery, which previously operated only Soviet-designed artillery missile systems. has much slower controls and reloads. Hours earlier on Thursday, Ukraine’s Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, announced on Twitter that the first batch of HIMARS trucks, from a Pentagon shipment announced at the end of Maycame to his country.
The Pentagon’s latest aid stockpile includes 36,000 rounds of 105 mm artillery shells, indicating that Ukraine already has another standard NATO artillery system that will use it. It is not clear which country supplied Ukraine with artillery to shoot them.
