The United States and several of its Western allies announced a new round of military (and humanitarian) aid to Ukraine.
United States$ 1 billion:
- 18 155 mm howitzers;
- 36,000 rounds of 155 mm ammunition;
- 18 tactical vehicles for towing 155 mm howitzers;
- Auxiliary ammunition for high mobility artillery rocket systems;
- Four tactical vehicles to retrieve equipment;
- Spare parts and other equipment.
- Two Harpoon Coast Guard Systems;
- Thousands of safe radios;
- Thousands of night vision devices, thermal sights and other optics;
- Funding for training, maintenance, upkeep, transport and administrative costs.
Germany
3 MLRS M270 Launchers and Ammunition
Canada:
10 M777 howitzers
Spare parts for M777 barrels
Slovakia:
Mi17 attack helicopters (four left in the entire fleet)
Missiles and parts thereof
Poland and The Netherlands:
More artillery (undisclosed quantity) The Netherlands, along with the United States, Britain and Denmark, is also sending additional anti – ship missiles to Harpoon.
The response to this new aid package was usually hysterical. That’s not enough! It’s too late! Why are they so slow! Only 18 M777? Ukraine needs 1000!
Ukraine will not receive 1000 155 mm pieces of artillery, and they are not needed either. I will not discuss the argument I made in my last update, you can read it here. (As you will see below, Ukraine has not even done so officially asked so much.)
Too slow? This is not the next day Amazon delivery. The Ukrainian logistics chain is already very busy existing weapons systems, adding new ones only makes the challenge more difficult. 36,000 artillery shells are not enough? No shit. It is this week delivery. Ukraine stated that it now has 110% of the artillery ammunition at the beginning of the war. It replenishes these stocks. The United States and its allies have shipped more than half a million artillery shells, and this continues to grow. Coastal protection systems are expensive. Ukraine wanted them and considered that the logistics lift was important enough to be given priority for the time being, rather than more artillery or other equipment.
Night vision goggles cost from 8 to 15 000 USD every. I have no idea how much thermal imaging systems cost. Probably more. Ukraine is becoming thousands from them. Ukraine already has advantages in night combat operations. The more infantry it is able to properly equip with such equipment, the more it will be able to operate at night when Russia is blind, its artillery inefficient.
And yes, the bullet of “spare parts” could be several hundred million dollars. There are reports that Ukraine has had to send M777 to Poland for maintenance and repair. Which is more important? Another M777 howitzer, or maintenance equipment to make all ~ 140 already in Ukraine and shoot?
Yes, support and maintenance are not sexy. It’s not 1000 HOWITZERS. But it is the life force of any military person, and especially during war. Without it, you get what Russia did at the beginning of the war – tanks left after running out of fuel or mechanical problems, donating hundreds of armored vehicles to Ukraine.
Critics were also dissatisfied with the lack of new HIMARS announcements from the United States.
The United States has just completed the first training of Ukrainian artillery personnel on the system. The size of the classroom is one wire – three launchers. We do not even have a crew of 10 systems moving to Ukraine. But the real bottle is ammunition. TThe United States announced that the Allies would supply 100 missiles per launcher to 10 MLRS platforms heading for Ukraine (4 in the United States, 3 in the United Kingdom, 3 in Germany). Suppose thatand 100 podsnot rockets, as the latter would be stupid outside the words. Assuming there are 100 pods, they can burn that ammunition in less than a week.
A one The HIMAR or M270 can sit in the middle of the Donbass, hitting targets all around. Its extended range allows it.
Why would Ukraine need it? more launchers if it takes a while for Ukraine to have enough ammunition to fire more than a few days?
Yes, four on the Donbass, three on the Kharkov and three on the Kherson front are literally enough to cover these fronts, even if one third of them are unusable at any time, such as when I was working on the M270 30 years ago. As long as the rocket pots are narrowing, no more launchers are needed. And certainly not the 300 that Ukraine claims it needs. 300 MLRS logistics are simply not real.
When the pods just sit and have nothing to shoot, then it’s time to send more launchers. Given that Ukraine’s logistics are already strained, it will take some time to build new logistics capacity in an attempt to maintain existing military supplies.
In the meantime, keep in mind that not every country is as loud about its contribution as the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Such flights are very common;
In fact, I have seen more flights by the Italian Air Force Rzeszow in recent weeks than almost any other country. However, they have never made a comprehensive statement about what they are sending. They better help quietly than rub it in Russia’s nose. Same with French and even the Germans, as much shit as they get. Things flow 24/7.
At a press conference, General Mark Miley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, summed up the Western response to Ukraine’s requests:
These are official requests from their Ministry of Defense. They demanded 10 artillery battalions; 12 artillery battalions were delivered. Again, I would say 97,000 anti-tank system. It has more anti-tank systems than tanks in the world. They demanded 200 tanks; they had 237 tanks. They asked for 100 infantry fighting vehicles; they had more than 300. We have supplied, roughly speaking, about 1,600 air defense systems and about 60,000 air defense cartridges. That is – when I say ‘we’, I mean the international community. You are looking at 260 artillery piping systems. Missile or tubular artillery has already been delivered. 383 have been met, and, as I said, almost half a million artillery cartridges.
That’s not what the media says, “we need 1,000 howitzers!” stuff. Miley said these were not real requests: “Everything General Zaluzhny asked for […] we will do it as soon as possible. So I don’t know where the numbers you come from come from.
Does Ukraine want more weapons? Of course it does. Does the US want to help more? There are billions of dollars in spending permission to get more. If it could all be announced and delivered today, they would. They don’t sit on those billions weirdly.
One last remark: Miley said Ukraine had received 260 artillery systems from the Allies, meaning that many systems were flowing in without warning. Another 120 are on the way, but only 28 of them are in the US and Canada, so again lot of More unannounced weapons are on the way.
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kos