The U.S. Department of Defense has officially disclosed the items on the list of new defense assistance to Ukraine.

The new aid package includes military vehicles, equipment, and munitions that will be transferred immediately as part of the $500 million Presidential Drawdown.

It includes ammunition for HIMARS, air defense interceptors, artillery rounds, anti-armor systems, small arms, and heavy equipment transport vehicles, as well as technical equipment for maintenance of previously transferred equipment.

The Presidential Drawdown is the thirty-fifth such drawdown of equipment from the U.S. Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine that the Biden Administration has authorized since August 2021.

The capabilities in this package include:

• Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems;
• Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
• 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;
• 120mm mortar rounds;
• 120mm and 105mm tank ammunition;
• 25mm ammunition;
• Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;
• Approximately 400 grenade launchers and 200,000 rounds of ammunition;
• 11 tactical vehicles to recover equipment;
• 61 heavy fuel tankers;
• 10 trucks and 10 trailers to transport heavy equipment;
• Testing and diagnostic equipment to support vehicle maintenance and repair;
• Spare parts and other field equipment.

In addition, the U.S. government announced a significant $2.1 billion military assistance package under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).

Unlike Presidential Drawdown, USAI is an authority under which the United States procures capabilities from industry rather than delivering equipment that is drawn down from DoD stocks. The announcement of this USAI package represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional capabilities to Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Under USAI, the DoD will provide Ukraine with:

• Additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);
• Nine counter-Unmanned Aerial System 30mm gun trucks;
• 10 mobile c-UAS laser-guided rocket systems;
• Three air surveillance radars;
• 30mm and 23mm anti-aircraft ammunition;
• 130mm and 122mm artillery rounds;
• 122mm GRAD rockets;
• Rocket launchers and ammunition;
• 120mm and 81mm mortar systems;
• 120mm, 81mm, and 60mm mortar rounds;
• 120mm tank ammunition;
• Javelin anti-armor systems;
• Anti-armor rockets;
• Precision aerial munitions;
• Approximately 3,600 small arms and more than 23,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition;
• Seven tactical vehicles to recover equipment;
• Eight heavy fuel tankers and 105 fuel trailers;
• Armored bridging systems;
• Four logistics support vehicles;
• Trucks and ten trailers to transport heavy equipment;
• Secure communications equipment;
• SATCOM terminals and services;
• Funding for training, maintenance, and sustainment.

This is not the first time that the USA has ordered weapons directly from the manufacturer for Ukraine. Thus, as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, the United States orders the production of Soviet-era ammunition for Ukraine, probably at the enterprises of the countries of the former Warsaw Pact.

New types of weapons

The novelty of the new defense assistance package may be nine unnamed vehicles with a mounted 30 mm gun. The vehicles are literally named in the document as “counter-Unmanned Aerial System 30 mm gun trucks”, which may indicate they may be installed on pickups’ or trucks’ chassis. The task of these systems, according to their name, should be to fulfill the role of short-range air defense to counter drones and cruise missiles.

In the USA, there is a similar system known as M-ACE, which is being developed by Northrop Grumman. The system includes a vehicle equipped with a White Gryphon R1400 radar and infrared and radio frequency sensors, as well as several vehicles equipped with 30-mm M230LF automatic cannons with an air detonation system.

Nevertheless, there is not enough information about the unnamed system to draw any conclusions.