Austin to Announce Up to $6 Billion Arms Commitment to Ukraine

Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News

Lloyd Austin , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is set to announce on Friday the commitment of as much as $6 billion to bankroll long-term contracts to provide Ukraine with weapons such as Patriot missiles and drones, according to several US officials familiar with the issue.

Austin’s announcement, planned for the start of a press conference, will lay out a broad commitment but not signed contracts, which would likely take months to finalize under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, or USAI, for systems that would be delivered over years.

These contracts are separate from Presidential Drawdown Authority packages that pull equipment from US inventories for fast deployments and later replenishment contract. The $6 billion figure was reported earlier by Politico.

When he signed the sweeping $95 billion national security legislation on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said assistance to Ukraine would begin to move within “hours.”

He said the military aid would include “air defense munitions, artillery for rocket systems, and armored vehicles.” The assistance had been held up in the US House for months while Russia gained the initiative in the conflict, now in its third year.

The US said the initial tranche of aid is valued at $1 billion and would include air defense interceptors, artillery rounds, armored vehicles, and anti-tank weapons — the first transfer from $61 billion in new funding.

Read More: Ukraine Budget ‘Very Uncertain’ in 2025, Finance Chief Says

That package included $13.8 billion in USAI funding, a defense official told reporters Thursday. The Pentagon has put on contract virtually all of the previous $19 billion USAI funding passed in previous packages.

Each award is preceded by a rigorous back and forth with contractors that can take months to insure the military is getting a fair price and realistic delivery schedules.

Among the largest previous USAI contracts were $1.2 billion awarded in August 2022 to various unnamed contractors for 155mm ammunition and $1.2 billion to RTX Corp. to build six Nasam air defense systems awarded between August and November 2022. The NATO-standard air defense system, produced by RTX, is used to protect the Washington region, including the White House.

Pentagon spokesman Marine Lt. Col Garron Garn said in a statement on Thursday the Pentagon had nothing to announce at the moment.