US to provide Ukraine with missiles to repel Russian air attacks

On October 26, the United States announced another $150 million defense aid package, according to a statement published on the official website of the US Department of Defense.

Defense aid is transferred under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which means that weapons are allocated directly from the US military's stockpile, so the Ukrainian Defense Forces will receive the announced list as soon as possible.

Defense Express’ analysts gave their assessment of the aid package.

The package, which primarily consists of ammunition, is intended to replace Ukraine's crucial stockpiles. First and foremost, these are air defense missiles, which are important now in light of Russia's probable plans to undertake terrorist strikes on energy infrastructure installations in the fall and winter.

The list contains standard missiles for NASAMS anti-aircraft missile systems, Stinger missile stocks, and the AIM-9M missile. The US will manufacture this air defense system for Ukraine on its own, most likely something akin to the British makeshift system for AIM-132 ASRAAM missiles or the MIM-72 Chaparral.

"Returning to the defense aid package, we can see a fairly typical list of weapons such as additional ammunition for HIMARS missile systems, 105-mm and 155-mm artillery ammunition, TOW missiles, Javelin missiles, and more than 2 million rounds of small arms ammunition," Defense Express notes. 

However, "additional ammunition for HIMARS" may already include not only GMLRS missiles, but also at least ATACMS cluster missiles with a range of 165 km, which are already successfully used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to strike Russian military targets in Ukraine's temporarily occupied territories.

Finally, the package contains a variety of other essential materials such as night vision devices, explosive munitions for obstacle removal, cold weather gear, spare parts, maintenance, and other support equipment.