Canada Announces New Military Aid Package for Ukraine
Canada will provide Ukraine with a new military aid package and has started training Ukrainian fighter pilots. This was announced by Canada's Minister of Defense Bill Blair during the 24th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The Minister said that this week pilots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine arrived in Canada to begin training under the Lead-in fighter Training (LIFT) program.
Canada has taken the lead on LIFT training for Ukrainian pilots as part of the aviation coalition. This was made possible by allocating £389 million for training Ukrainian F-16 pilots.
Military assistance package
The military assistance package includes 80,840 rocket engines for the CRV-7 unguided 70 mm air-to-air missiles and 1,300 warheads for them.
CRV7 rockets.
Photo credits: magellan.aero
This is the second delivery of these engines, following a batch of 2,160 units promised earlier this year. The engines are being prepared for shipment to Poland and will arrive in the coming months. In early February 2024, Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov said that Ukraine had asked Canada to transfer CRV7 unguided air defense missiles.
More than 83,000 of these decommissioned missiles were stored in the Canadian Army's warehouse in Dundurn, near Saskatoon, awaiting disposal. Canada will also donate 970 surplus C6 machine guns (a licensed Canadian copy of the Belgian FN MAG), as well as 10,500 surplus 9mm pistols. At Ukraine's request, 29 decommissioned M113 armored personnel carrier chassis and 64 Coyote LAVs, previously used by the Canadian Armed Forces, will also be transferred.
These vehicles are no longer in service with the Canadian army and will be repurposed or used for spare parts by Ukraine. The Minister also spoke about the process of providing previous aid packages. The first batch of ACSV APCs in medical configuration has arrived in Europe, and training for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on these vehicles is underway.
The remaining 40 vehicles in both cargo and passenger versions will start arriving in the spring of 2025, with delivery to be completed by the end of 2025.
ACSV armored personnel carrier in a sanitary version for the Ukrainian military. June 2024.
Canada. Photo credits: Government of Canada
This month, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will begin training with Teledyne FLIR Skyranger drones. The delivery of the first 450 of these drones this summer was announced in April 2024.
In August, Canada also delivered approximately £200,000 worth of IT equipment to support Ukraine's cyber capabilities.