News Desk
WASHINGTON: The United States is preparing more than $2 billion worth of military package for Ukraine to fight Russian forces.
The package include…
Two US officials told Reuters that the military package is expected to have longer-range rockets and other munitions and weapons.
The officials said that the military aid was expected to be announced early this week.
They said that the aid was also expected to have support equipment for Patriot air defence systems, Javelin anti-tank weapons, and precision-guided munitions.
One of the officials said that a portion of the military aid would come from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) fund that allows President Joe Biden’s administration to buy weapons from industry rather than from US weapons stocks.
The USAI funds would mostly go toward the buying of a new weapon, the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), which has a range of 150 kilometres. The US earlier rebuffed Ukraine’s requests for the 297 kilometres range ATACMS missile.
GLSDB is GPS-guided, could defeat some electronic jamming, and is usable in all weather conditions, and can be used against armoured vehicles.
The GBU-39, which would function as the GLSDB’s warhead, has tiny, folding wings that allow it to glide more than 100 kilometres if dropped from an aircraft and hit targets as small as 3 feet in diameter.
The officials said that the USAI fund would also be used to pay for more components of HAWK air defences, counter-drone systems, counter artillery and air surveillance radars.
However, the White House did not comment on the new aid package.
