Pentagon to send $1 billion in air defense weapons and artillery shells to ... trends now
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The U.S. will send a massive $1 billion military weapons package - including long-range missiles, ammunition, drones and vehicles - to send the Ukraine now that Congress has approved the funding.
The Senate approved a foreign aid package on Tuesday night that includes $61 billion for the war torn Ukraine. The first tranche of weapons is expected to land in Kyiv within days.
'I'm making sure the shipment start right away,' President Joe Biden said Wednesday shortly after he signed the bill at the White House. 'In the next few hours, literally, a few hours.'
Within minutes of Biden's announcement, the Pentagon released a detailed list of weapons and equipment headed toward Kyiv.
For the first time the aid package will include long-range ATACMS, or Army Tactical Missile Systems. Kyiv has pledged not to use the weapons inside Russian territory.
The aid package also includes Bradley fighting vehicles, Stinger air defense munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 155 millimeter artillery ammunition, TOW and Javelin anti-tank munitions, demolition weaponry and other weapons that can immediately be put to use on the battlefield, officials told Reuters.
The overall $95 billion foreign aid package, which including billions for Israel and Taiwan, passed the House on Saturday, after months of frustration.
Speaker Mike Johnson pulled together a bipartisan coalition to approve the legislation as several members of his conservative wing opposed it.
President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Wednesday
Ukrainian servicemen of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, fire a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system towards Russian troops
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon said the U.S. has a robust logistical system in place and is 'doing everything we can to be poised to respond quickly' once the bill is signed.
Ryder said the U.S. has storehouses of military equipment in Europe and can tap into those to get aid into Ukraine within days.
'We certainly understand and appreciate the urgency and are poised to move quickly,' he
