Pentagon sending Ukraine laser-guided rockets, new surveillance drones

This round of commercially available weapons includes $22.6 million worth of 70mm rockets — known as the advanced precision kill weapon system — that can be fired from helicopters, and $17.8 million in additional Switchblade drones, which can be armed and flown into Russian armored vehicles or troop formations. The Pentagon also is buying several Puma drones, whose principal function is to conduct surveillance.

Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters Friday that the Defense Department has $300 million in congressionally approved funding to spend on commercially available military equipment. Separately, LaPlante said, the Pentagon is now negotiating with defense contractors to replace stocks of antiaircraft Stinger missiles and anti-armor Javelin missiles that the United States already provided to Ukraine from its military stocks. Thousands of missiles already have been sent to Ukraine.

“We are in contact with industry every day as our requirements evolve and will continue to utilize all available tools to support Ukraine’s armed forces in the face of Russian aggression,” LaPlante said.

The advanced precision kill system works by converting low-cost ammunition into guided weapons. U.S. forces have used it to supplement the firepower on a variety of aircraft, including helicopters and fighter jets.

The hand-launched Puma drones are used primarily for aerial surveillance and are likely to expand Ukraine’s intelligence gathering capabilities.

LaPlante said in an interview that these commercial deliveries complement the weapons shipments that the Pentagon has delivered to Ukraine from its existing stocks. Two more of those bulk transfers are being finalized and are expected to start shipping soon, he said.

The Pentagon received more than 300 responses from defense contractors after it issued a request last month seeking information about commercially available weapons that might prove helpful to Ukraine, LaPlante said.

As defense officials considers which weapons to send to Ukraine, they are evaluating not only what’s available, but how much can be provided without hindering U.S. national security, how easy it will be for Ukrainian soldiers to learn how to use such systems, and whether there are classified components on them that could complicate exporting them, LaPlante said. While many weapons do have classified aspects, some also come in readily exportable versions, he added.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers earlier this week that the Pentagon is “in pretty good shape” when it comes to supplying Ukraine with weapons to beat back the Russian invasion while still maintaining minimum required stockpiles for protecting the United States.

Several Republican senators expressed doubts about that.

“Our missile stockpiles are being stretched thin after years of producing at a minimum rate of sustainment and the increased demand resulting from efforts to bolster Ukrainian defenses,” Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) told Austin, arguing that his contacts within the defense industry were worried about “the challenges they face with trying to increase production rates while shortening lead times.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) questioned whether Ukrainian troops were receiving sufficient guidance on how to use the weapons the United States is providing, citing letters from high-ranking officials in Kyiv and reports that their troops “are not provided adequate training to operate” Javelin missiles, she said.

Javelins have been a bedrock of the U.S. lethal aid to Ukraine since 2018. Austin said he was unfamiliar with such complaints.

The Pentagon has recently restarted its training program for Ukrainian forces, using sites outside the war zone to teach small numbers of personnel how to operate certain systems that the United States is providing. Those troops then return to Ukraine with and show their colleagues what they’ve learned.

Congress is weighing President Biden’s request for $33 billion in supplemental support for Ukraine, including $20 billion in security assistance — a package that the Pentagon’s top spokesman, John Kirby, said would likely sustain U.S. support to Kyiv for the next five months.

The speed at which the United States would be able to ship weapons to Ukraine, however, will also depend in part on how swiftly and ably the U.S. supplies are able to be replenished by new production.