Armored vehicles, demining equipment and missiles: a new aid package from the United States

27 June, 2023 M142 HIMARS. Photo from open sources. The U.S.

Department of Defense has announced a new security assistance package for Ukraine. The Pentagon announced this on its official website. This package, valued at up to £500 million, includes key capabilities to support Ukraine's counteroffensive operations and strengthen its air defenses, as stated in the Pentagon press-release.

The aid package is the Biden Administration's 41st drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.

Ammunition loading at the US Air Force Base in Dover, 2022. Photo credits: Mauricio Campino/U.S. Air Force

"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 said.

The capabilities of this package include:

  • Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems;
  • Stinger anti-aircraft systems;
  • Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
  • Demolitions munitions and systems for obstacle clearing;
  • Mine clearing equipment;
  • 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;
  • 30 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles;
  • 25 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers;
  • Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;
  • Javelin anti-armor systems;
  • AT-4 anti-armor systems;
  • Anti-armor rockets;
  • High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs);
  • Precision aerial munitions;
  • Small arms and over 22 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades;
  • Thermal imagery systems and night vision devices;
  • Testing and diagnostic equipment to support vehicle maintenance and repair;
  • Spare parts, generators, and other field equipment.

Concerning the demining equipment, these are probably the M58 MICLIC mine-clearing line charges that Ukraine has already received as part of past aid packages. The system consists of an M353 or M200A1 utility chassis trailer, a launcher, an M147 firing kit, an M58A3 line charge, and a 127 mm MK22 Mod 4 rocket. The charge is launched by a Mk22 rocket motor and explodes on the minefield, clearing a strip 100 meters long and eight meters wide.

Such a contender can be a M1132 engineering vehicle based on the Stryker armored personnel carrier, videos of which appeared earlier. M1132 is equipped with a LWMR (Light-Weight Mine Roller), and it was reported that the Pentagon has handed over 20 mine rollers to Ukraine. LWMR protects the equipment from buried mines and explosive devices - the trawl defuses them in front of the vehicle.

This mine trawl has been tested in combat conditions and is in service with the U.S.

Army and the Canadian Forces.

The system is light in weight, but creates a powerful effect by using hydraulic energy to transfer some of the vehicle's weight to roller wheels, creating sufficient pressure to detonate mines.

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