US preparing to announce $6B in weapons contracts for Ukraine

The U.S. is putting the finishing touches on one of its largest Ukraine military aid packages to date, preparing to ink contracts for as much as $6 billion worth of weapons and equipment for Kyiv’s forces, according to two U.S. officials.

The package, which could be finalized and announced as soon as Friday, will dip into the $61 billion in Ukraine funding signed into law by President Joe Biden on Wednesday. It would include Patriot air defense munitions, artillery ammunition, drones, counter-drone weapons, and air-to-air missiles to be fitted on fighter planes, according to the two officials and a third person familiar with the planning.

The equipment — which also includes ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems — likely won’t arrive in Ukraine for several years, as the money is being allocated under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Under USAI, the Pentagon issues contracts to American defense firms to build new equipment for Ukraine, as opposed to drawing from current U.S. stocks.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to announce the new aid during a virtual meeting on Friday of the 50-plus nations that make up the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. It will be a big boost after the U.S. was forced to show up empty-handed for the monthly gathering for months while the funding was stalled in Congress.

The package, which comes on top of the $1 billion in more immediate aid announced by Washington on Wednesday, comes as Kyiv is being outgunned and outmanned by Russian forces as the Russian war industry is running at full capacity.

Asked for comment, Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Garron Garn said the department had no security assistance announcements to make. The people familiar with the pending announcement were granted anonymity to discuss internal planning.

Moscow has been firing as many as 10 artillery rounds for every Ukrainian round fired, as Kyiv’s stockpiles dwindled.

“The Russians are going to … three shifts a day 24/7” in their defense industry, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, William LaPlante, said on Wednesday. “Depending on who you believe, they’re at 6 to 7 percent of their GDP is spent on their military, we're at about 3.2 percent.”

But after the $1 billion drawdown package announced on Wednesday, “Literally right now there are planes flying probably with equipment to Ukraine,” he added. “All we need is to sign the bill and we're gone. We're writing contracts this afternoon.”

That drawdown of artillery rounds, air defense missiles, armored vehicles and Army Tactical Missile Systems with a range of nearly 200 miles represents more immediate help for Ukraine as it tries to blunt recent Russian advances and stepped-up missile attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure.

The Biden administration last month secretly shipped the long-range version of the ATACMS to Ukraine for the first time in the two-year war — and Kyiv has already used the weapon several times to strike deep behind Russian lines.

“One of the things we’ve been able to see is that when Ukraine is supplied, they’ve been able to be effective,” Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown said in a discussion at Georgetown University on Thursday.

The $1 billion in immediate aid and long-rage missiles follows a similar move by the U.K., which first sent its long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine in May 2023, giving Kyiv the ability to hit targets up to 155 miles away. The weapon, which is launched from Ukrainian fighter planes, has allowed Ukraine to precisely target ammunition dumps, bridges and other critical infrastructure deep inside Russian-occupied Crimea.

The U.K. announced its largest Ukraine aid package to date this week, which includes 1,600 missiles, and more Storm Shadows. France has also sent its SCALP missile, which has a similar range.

A Czech official also confirmed Thursday that their government’s initiative to pool European funds to buy hundreds of thousands of artillery shells owned by countries outside of the European Union is bearing fruit, and the first tranche of 155mm and 122mm munitions will arrive in Ukraine in June.