Cluster munitions, armored vehicles and artillery: new aid package from the US
8 July, 2023 US military with DPICM rounds. Photo from open sources The US Department of Defense has announced additional security assistance to meet Ukraine's security and defense needs.
The Pentagon made the announcement on its official website. The value of the new aid package has not been disclosed. It includes additional artillery systems, armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons and cluster munitions.
This authorization is the Biden Administration's forty-second drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.
M777 of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. Photo from open sources
"The United States will continue to work with its Allies and partners to provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its immediate battlefield needs and longer-term security assistance requirements," the statement reads. The capabilities in this package include, as follows:
- Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems;
- AIM-7 missiles for air defense;
- Stinger anti-aircraft systems;
- Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
- 31 155mm Howitzers;
- 155mm artillery rounds, including DPICM, and 105mm artillery rounds;
- 32 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles;
- 32 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers;
- Mine clearing equipment;
- Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;
- Javelin and other anti-armor systems and rockets;
- Precision aerial munitions;
- Penguin Unmanned Aerial Systems;
- 27 tactical vehicles to recover equipment;
- 10 tactical vehicles to tow and haul equipment;
- Demolitions munitions and systems for obstacle clearing.
When forming the aid package, the Administration of the President of the United States conducted extensive consultations with allies and partners.
Contents of the aid package
It likely regards the towed M777, of which, according to some estimates, about 130 units are in service with the Defense Forces of Ukraine.
DPICM (Dual-purpose improved conventional munition) is a family of artillery and rocket cluster projectiles. The nomenclature of shells in 155-mm caliber includes ammunition M483A1 and M864. Mine clearing equipment is likely to mean a number of engineering vehicles, which may include the M58 MICLIC that Ukraine has already received as part of past aid packages.
Precision aerial munitions can be JDAM-ER bombs.
HEMTT M1120A4.
Photo from open sources
The M1132 Engineer Squad Vehicle based on the Stryker armored personnel carrier, videos of which appeared earlier, can also be a contender.
HEMTT trucks are capable of acting as tactical vehicles to tow and haul equipment.