Harpoon missile truck9/17/2023 USAI programs, in addition to meeting Ukraine's shorter-term needs, also help ensure Ukraine's enduring strength by providing for procurement and training of Ukrainian forces on NATO-standard equipment. It enables the department to make direct purchases of equipment, as well as contract for training and maintenance and sustainment, including in support of equipment provided through presidential drawdown. It was given to us by Congress after Russia's invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. USAI is an authority that we've been utilizing since 2015. The $350 million in this presidential drawdown package that's part of the $1 billion is designed to provide additional artillery systems and ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARs, for the concentrated artillery duel that continues to transpire in eastern Ukraine. The presidential drawdown authority enables the department to draw from existing defense stocks to rapidly provide capabilities that Ukraine needs most urgently. We understand it can be confusing why we use either authority or both at the same time, so I wanted to start off by providing you with a little bit of an overview on that. The assistance is split between two different authorities: Presidential Drawdown Authority and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, or USAI. This new assistance will support Ukraine's most urgent needs for artillery, as well as near-term priorities for coastal defense, secure communications and optics. SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL #1: Thank you, and thanks so much for joining us here today.Īs President Biden announced earlier today following his phone call with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, the United States will be providing Ukraine with another $1 billion of security assistance. Anticipate about 30 minutes.Īnd with that, gentlemen, I'll turn it over to you. They'll each give you short opening remarks, and then we'll take your questions. Please refer to them as "Senior Defense Officials". This briefing is going to be on background. We wanted to give you the opportunity to ask some questions of our subject matter experts, so today, we have (Edited). This next round is a combination of our drawdown authority, our 12th-such package, as well as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Hear me OK? All right, good afternoon.Īs I'm sure you all just saw, Secretary Austin and Chairman Milley just wrapped up their remarks following the third meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, where they announced an additional $1 billion in security assistance for Ukraine. Journalists fight on their own frontline.STAFF: Good afternoon, everybody. The ship was transporting Russian military personnel and weapons to the Zmiinyi (Snake) Island. Several days later, the Ukrainian Navy Forces struck a Russian naval tugboat, Vasily Bekh, armed with a TOR anti-aircraft missile system, with two Harpoon missiles in the Black Sea. The Pentagon announced Harpoon coastal defence systems were part of a $1 billion aid package for Ukraine announced in June. The announcement that Ukraine’s Western partners will supply it with Harpoon anti-ship missiles came in spring. We have launched English Twitter! Follow us! He did not specify the ship’s actual name. He added that Ukrainian forces had since sunk another Russian warship with the Harpoons. "There's incredible innovation going on right now and we just don't talk about it enough," LaPlante said. He explained that the ship-based missile launchers were removed from the ally’s ship and modified to be fired from a flatbed truck. The missiles that struck the Russian ship were given to Ukraine by a US ally LaPlante did not identify.
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