U.S. soldiers with the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division fire the cannon on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Poland in August 2022. (Charles Porter/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON — The United States is sending up to $500 million in aid to Ukraine that includes more Stryker and Bradley armored vehicles, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
The aid includes 25 Strykers and 30 Bradleys, more munitions for the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and Patriot air defense systems, mine-clearing equipment and Javelin anti-armor missiles. The weapons and equipment build on what the U.S. announced two weeks ago in a $325 million aid package that included Stryker personnel carriers and Bradley Fighting Vehicles and followed reports that Ukrainian troops lost more than a dozen Bradleys attacking Russian forces in early June.
The aid announcement also comes after the Defense Department reported last week it overestimated the value of weapons and equipment sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion and a short-lived, failed rebellion this weekend in Russia by Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner Group mercenary forces that he controlled.
This is the 41st time that the U.S. has provided weapons through the presidential drawdown authority, which means it will come directly from Pentagon stocks and be sent quickly on an emergency basis. Aid given this way typically means it reaches Ukraine in a matter of weeks.
U.S. soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team direct a Stryker vehicle during the Warrior Shield exercise at Rodriguez Live Fire Complex in Pocheon, South Korea, on March 22, 2023. (Christopher Green/Stars and Stripes)
The U.S. had committed more than $40 billion to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022. More than $15 billion in weapons and equipment has come from presidential drawdowns and an additional $6.2 billion in supplies has been committed but not identified yet, according to the Pentagon. The U.S. also has provided $16.7 billion in weapons, training and other equipment through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, along with an additional roughly $2 billion in foreign military financing.
The list of weapons and items in the aid include:
• Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems.
• Stinger anti-aircraft systems.
• Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems.
• 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 missiles.
• Javelin anti-armor missiles.
• AT-4 anti-armor systems.
• Anti-armor rockets.
• High-speed, anti-radiation missiles.
• Precision aerial munitions.
• Small arms and more than 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.
