What’s included in America’s new $2.5 billion dollar Ukrainian aid package?

The Pentagon has announced a new $2.5 billion dollar security aid package for Ukraine that promises to help change the course of the war. But what’s included and how will it affect the war?

On January 19th, Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder announced that the new security assistance to Ukraine would focus on providing the country with more “air defense and armor.” 

Ukrainian officials have been asking for more air defense capabilities since Russian forces began a missile campaign against the country’s energy infrastructure in early October.

"We must do everything to make it impossible for Russia to destroy our energy system with missiles and drones," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told European Union leaders during a video meeting in late October. 

General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, current Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces told The Economist in December that he needed at least 300 main battle tanks to support his efforts to push Russia out of all its occupied territories. 

Unfortunately, the new American aid package doesn’t include the vaunted Abrams M1 main battle tank. But it does include a number of armored combat vehicles, including General Dynamics Land Systems’ Stryker armored personnel carrier. 

The United States has yet to send Stryker armored vehicles to Ukraine but the new security package will include 90 vehicles, which will be used to support Ukraine’s next series of counter-offensives in the spring.

The United States is also supplying Ukrainian forces with 59 more Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles equipped with 590 TOW anti-tank missile rounds and roughly 295,000 rounds of 25mm ammunition according to a press release from the Department of Defense. 

Ukraine will also be getting eight Avenger air defense systems as well as more ammunition for their Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems (NASAMS).

Other oddities include 350 high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles and 12 armored ammunition support vehicles to help transport the large numbers of ammunition being sent. 

20,000 more 155mm artillery rounds are included in the package as well as 95,000 more 105mm rounds.

“Approximately 600 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds,” will be sent according to the Department of Defense’s press release, plus “additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems.”

11,800 mortar rounds, 2000 anti-armor rockets, and 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition will also be sent. 

Interestingly, new night vision and demolition equipment have also been included in the package, which could indicate a future offensive is imminent. 

The announcement of this new aid package comes just days after Defense Secretary Loyyd Austin met with representatives from more than 50 countries for the eighth time in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, an organization designed to assess Ukraine's military needs and provide coordinated support. 

To date, the United States has provided Ukraine with more than $29.5 billion dollars in security assistance according to the Department of Defense and it seems that that number won’t be slowing down anytime soon.