BY JAMIE MCINTYRE

$800M MORE BUCKS FOR MORE BANG: With the start of a major Russian offensive to capture all of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine perhaps just days away, the U.S. is racing to get more of the kinds of weapons systems Ukraine will need to fight on flat, open terrain that resembles the plains of Kansas.

The announcement of an additional $800 million of weapons pulled directly from U.S. stockpiles came after a phone call between President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has been issuing daily appeals for more tanks and anti-aircraft systems.

“This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine,” said Biden in a statement. “These new capabilities include artillery systems, artillery rounds, and armored personnel carriers. I have also approved the transfer of additional helicopters.”

BIDEN SENDING HELICOPTERS TO UKRAINE IN $800M MILITARY AID PACKAGE

‘AN EFFORT TO GIVE THE UKRAINIANS EVERY POSSIBLE ADVANTAGE’: At the Pentagon, spokesman John Kirby broke down the latest package of direct military assistance, the seventh batch of U.S. weapons sent to Ukraine since August.

“Some of them are reinforcing capabilities that we have already been providing Ukraine, and some of them are new capabilities that we have not provided to Ukraine,” Kirby said. “All of them are designed to help Ukraine in the fight that they are in right now, and the flight that they will be in, in coming days and weeks.”

“It's very much an effort to give the Ukrainians every possible advantage in this fight that's coming,” he said.

WHAT’S BEING SENT: The arms package is heavily geared to what the Pentagon calls long-range fires, such as artillery, rockets, and short-range missiles. The key items are:

155mm Howitzers (18) — “We're giving them these Howitzers with 40,000 artillery rounds that go along with them, because we know that artillery is going to be a very key factor in this fight that's coming in the Donbas,” said Kirby on CNN. “You can see it on the Russian side as well because the Russians are bringing in artillery assets of their own.”

AN/TPQ-36 counter-artillery radars (10) — These counter-battery systems detect incoming artillery and rocket fire and quickly compute the point of origin, so that the location can be targeted by counterfire. “The counter artillery radar that is in this package will also help save Ukrainian lives because it will be able to help defend them against incoming artillery,” Kirby said.

AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel air surveillance radars (2) — These 3D phased array radars, made by Raytheon, can track a variety of airborne threats, including planes, helicopters, drones, and cruise missiles.

M113 Armored Personnel Carriers (200) — These armored tracked vehicles can carry a dozen troops and are usually armed with a .50 caliber machine gun, but can also be equipped with a variety of anti-tank weapons.

Mi-17 helicopters (11) — These Russian-built helicopters were originally acquired by the U.S. for transfer to Afghanistan, but were never sent because of the fall of Kabul. Now they will be given to Ukraine. Earlier this year, the U.S. gave five M-17s, so Ukraine now has 17 from the U.S. The helicopters are easier to fly and maintain than U.S. Black Hawks. They can carry up to 30 troops, 12 stretchers, or 9,000 pounds of cargo.

Rounding out the list of latest weapons:

• 300 Switchblade Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems
• 500 Javelin missiles and thousands of other anti-armor systems
• 200 M113 Armored Personnel Carriers
• 100 Armored HUMVEES
• Unmanned Coastal Defense Vessels
• Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear protective equipment
• Medical equipment 
• 30,000 sets of body armor and helmets 
• Over 2,000 optics and laser rangefinders 
• C-4 explosives and demolition equipment for obstacle clearing 
• M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel munitions configured to be consistent with the Ottawa Convention. (Claymore mines are exempted from the ban on anti-personnel mines.)

AMMUNITION SHORTAGE LOOMS AS UKRAINE BURNS THROUGH SOVIET-ERA STOCKPILES

WAIT, WHAT? One of the more mysterious items on the inventory is listed as “Unmanned Coastal Defense Vessels,” which is something the Navy has not developed beyond the prototype stage.

“It's an unmanned surface vessel that can be used for a variety of purposes in coastal defense. I think I'll just leave it at that,” said Kirby. “It's coming from Navy stocks.”

A GAO report released last week suggested the Navy’s program to develop “uncrewed maritime systems,” essentially robot ships operated with artificial intelligence, was in need of some improvement, prompting one reporter at yesterday’s briefing to ask for a fact sheet on the system.

“There's none in the Navy inventory. They're all experimental,” said Bloomberg’s Tony Cappacio. “How do we know the damn thing even works?”

“I'm not gonna promise you a fact sheet,” Kirby replied, but he said, “I can promise you the damn thing works.”

 'HUGE BLOW': CREW EVACUATES 'SERIOUSLY DAMAGED' RUSSIAN FLAGSHIP

Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Victor I. Nava. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP OR READ BACK ISSUES OF DAILY ON DEFENSE

ADVERTISEMENT

Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what's going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!

HAPPENING TODAY: Secretary of State Antony Blinken takes part in a virtual discussion on "21st Century Diplomacy and Global Challenges” at 1:15 p.m. at the Vandenberg Lecture sponsored by the University of Michigan. Livestream at https://www.state.gov/

And at 12:15 p.m., U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield takes part in a virtual discussion at the Brookings Institution on “The state of international cooperation and multilateralism.”

PUTIN’S PARANOIA: In Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Tuesday news conference after meeting President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Putin continued to portray the United States as a puppet master that has all of Europe under its thumb.

“What is behind its consolidation? It is Europe’s insulting and humiliating position with regard to its sovereign, that is, the United States,” Putin said of Western solidarity. “ You may remember that the British press once referred to a former British prime minister — I will not name him here — as 'the U.S. President’s poodle.' Isn’t that insulting?”

Putin sees all of Europe aligned against him, at the behest of the United States. “Today they have Russian aggression and a common enemy. It is a convenient pretext for closing ranks and serving US interests. They have always served them, but today they can do it openly, taking decisions that benefit the United States, including in the economy, and explaining it by the need to repel an aggressor,” Putin said.

Putin, as he has in the past, admitted Western sanctions are causing hardships, but he told the Russian people, “I assure you that time will put everything in its place.”

“They want to create these problems for us, and they are doing it. Yes, it will be difficult for some sectors, but we will deal with these difficulties.”

The latest intelligence update from the British Defense Ministry noted, “President Putin’s speech on Tuesday highlighted his continued interest in the Donbas where Russia is striking Ukrainian forces in preparation for a renewed offensive.”

RUSSIA THREATENS ZELENSKY: 'WE WILL STRIKE DECISION-MAKING CENTERS' IN UKRAINE

THE COMING OFFENSIVE: It’s “unclear exactly when full-on offensive operations might occur,” Kirby told CNN yesterday. “We do already see the Russians begin to refit, resupply, and try to reinforce some of the units that they already have in the Donbas.”

At yesterday’s Pentagon briefing Kirby said the battle for the Donbas will present a very different challenge for the Ukrainian forces. “They will be facing Russian forces that are familiar with the territory and that part of Ukraine they've been fighting over for eight years, [that] will likely be replenished.”

“And they will be resupplied. You're looking at short supply route lines for the Russians because the Donbas region borders right up alongside Russia. So, part of the problems that they had, you know, in the north — long and unsustainable lines of communication — that won't be the same problem for them.”

“And what are the ultimate goals? Again, we don't know perfectly,” Kirby said. “It could be that Mr. Putin wants to secure the Donbas as a negotiating chip at the table … Or it could be that he wants to use that area as a bridge to go further and deeper into Ukraine. We're just not sure.”

‘WE ARE GOING TO MOVE THIS AS FAST AS WE CAN’: As far as when all the promised U.S. weaponry will actually arrive in Ukraine, Kirby said, “We're aware of the clock. And we know time is not our friend. And that's why even before this was announced today, that we had been moving at a very, very fast speed, all the other security assistance that we've been providing, at, frankly, at an unprecedented rate.”

“We recognize that, and we're taking advantage of every day, every hour to get this stuff there as fast as we can,” Kirby said, while in his CNN interview he gave a few more specifics.

“It won't take very long,” he said. “From the time the president authorizes, we have been able to get things into Ukraine in as little as four to six days. Now, that's the initial shipments. There will be multiple shipments of material that will flow into Ukraine over the coming days and weeks, for sure.”

INDUSTRY WATCH: With all these weapons and ammunition coming out of the military’s current inventory, the Pentagon is anticipating that eventually it’s going to have to replenish its own stocks, and that means fresh orders from U.S. defense contractors.

Yesterday, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks had a regularly scheduled meeting with the CEOs of the major defense contractors, and the subject was the need to accelerate or expand some production lines in order to backfill munitions sent to Ukraine.

“We have not reached a level of inventory of any of these systems that are impacting our readiness abilities,” Kirby said, “but we don't want to get to that point before we start to have a conversation with industry about replenishment and the production line going forward.”

Companies represented included Boeing, L3Harris, Raytheon, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Huntington Ingalls, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman.

PENTAGON HUDDLES WITH TOP DEFENSE CONTRACTOR EXECS ON MILITARY AID TO UKRAINE

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The Rundown

Washington Examiner: Russia threatens Zelensky: 'We will strike decision-making centers' in Ukraine

Washington Examiner: Zelensky suggests prisoner swap: Putin's pal for Ukrainians taken by Russian forces

Washington Examiner: As Russian forces mass for Donbas-Dnipro offensive, Ukraine begs Biden for longer-range weapons

Washington Examiner: Satellite images show new Russian convoy and staging areas for next phase of invasion

Washington Examiner: Putin's Ukraine reset

Washington Examiner: Russian troops deported 500,000 Ukrainians, used Red Cross emblem

Washington Examiner: The Pentagon explains why Ukraine has been able to defend itself

Washington Examiner: Pentagon huddles with top defense contractor execs on military aid to Ukraine

Washington Examiner: 'Huge blow': Crew evacuates 'seriously damaged' Russian flagship

Washington Examiner: Biden sending helicopters to Ukraine in $800M military aid package

Washington Examiner: White House disputes Biden went off-script with Russian genocide declaration

Washington Examiner: Macron distances himself from Biden’s 'genocide' in Ukraine comments

Washington Examiner: Ammunition shortage looms as Ukraine burns through Soviet-era stockpiles

Washington Examiner: Lithuania urges Western allies to seek 'regime change' in Russia

Washington Examiner: WATCH: Russian Embassy spotlight operator duels with pro-Ukraine protesters

Washington Examiner: UN: Ukraine water system on verge of 'complete collapse'

Washington Examiner: Hawley says US must arm Taiwan before 'it's too late'

Washington Examiner: White House lashes out at Abbott over Texas border delays

Washington Examiner: Border Patrol stops releasing migrants to town that called in Abbott buses to DC

Washington Examiner: Jan. 6 committee member teases report with 'crimes that have not yet been alleged'

Washington Examiner: Opinion: Another reminder that the Iran nuclear deal will not deter Iranian assassination plots

Washington Post: Pentagon Will Bolster Weapons Training For Ukrainians As Aid Expands

Washington Post: Growing Focus On Atrocities In Ukraine

New York Times: Putin’s War May Push Swedes And Finns To Apply To NATO

Defense News: NATO Planners Put The F-35 Front And Center In European Nuclear Deterrence

Air Force Magazine: China and Russia Space Fleets Grow by 70 Percent in Two Years, DIA Report Says

Air Force Magazine: Brown: Aircraft Planned for Divestment Likely Wouldn’t Go to War Anyway

Air Force Magazine: Q&A with Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom on the Future Fighter Fleet

19fortyfive.com: How China Could Secretly Be Sending Weapons to Russia

19fortyfive.com: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Means Europe Will Spend Big on Defense

19fortyfive.com: Ukraine Needs a Massive Stockpile of Old Soviet Weapons to Fight Russia

WTKR-TV: Navy Recovers Plane Involved In Deadly Crash On Eastern Shore

Calendar

THURSDAY | APRIL 14

7:30 a.m.1331 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. — Economic Club of Washington, D.C. discussion with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan https://www.economicclub.org/events/honorable-jake-sullivan

8:30 a.m. 250 S Hayes Street, Arlington, Va. — FedScoop Public Sector Innovation Summit on "A Holistic Multi-Cloud for Mission Success,” with Army CIO Raj Lyee; Kevin Stine, chief of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Applied Cybersecurity Division; Michael Waschull, deputy CIO of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Brian Merrick, director of cloud programs at the State Department; and Gerald Caron, CIO and assistant inspector general of information technology at HHS https://upgather.com/vmware/public-sector-innovation-summit

10 a.m. — Jewish Institute for National Security of America virtual discussion, “Why The Iran Nuclear Deal Should be Rejected,” with former U.S. European Command Deputy Commander Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, co-chair of the JINSA Iran Policy Project; former U.S. 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. John Bird, member of the JINSA Iran Policy Project; and Michael Makovsky, president and CEO of JINSA https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register

10 a.m. 13869 Park Center Road, Herndon, Va. — National Defense Industrial Association Integrated Program Management Division Spring meeting, with Fred Janicki, director of the Defense Department Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation's Space and Strategic Systems Cost Analysis Division; and Mel Frank, director of the Energy Department Office of Project Management's Project Controls Division https://tinyurl.com/5hud4cvv

11:30 a.m. 7801 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, Va. — Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association discussion with Air Force Lt. Col. Thomas Meagher, division chief at the AFWERX Agility Prime program https://afceanova.swoogo.com/Apr22Lunch

12 p.m. — The George Washington University Sigur Center for Asian Studies book discussion: “U.S.-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present," with author Robert Sutter, professor at GWU https://www.eventbrite.com/e/us-china-relations-perilous-past

12 p.m. — Hudson Institute virtual discussion: “Defending Guam," with Patty-Jane Geller, policy analyst for nuclear deterrence and missile defense at the Heritage Foundation's Center for National Defense; Matthew Costlow, senior analyst at the National Institute for Public Policy; Rebeccah Heinrichs, director of the Hudson Keystone Defense Initiative; Bryan Clark, director of the Hudson Center for Defense Concepts and Technology; Oriana Skyler Mastro, fellow at Stanford University's Institute for International Studies; Black Herzinger, nonresident fellow at the Pacific Forum; Peppi DeBiaso, nonresident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Missile Defense Project; Timothy Walton, fellow at the Hudson Center for Defense Concepts and Technology; and Rebeccah Heinrichs, director of the Hudson Keystone Defense Initiative https://www.hudson.org/events

12:15 p.m. — Brookings Institution virtual discussion: “The state of international cooperation and multilateralism," with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield https://www.brookings.edu/events/the-state-of-international-cooperation

1:15 p.m. — Vandenberg Lecture at the University of Michigan, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken participating in a virtual discussion on "21st Century Diplomacy and Global Challenges" Livestream at https://www.state.gov/

1 p.m. — National Defense Industrial Association virtual discussion: “Enabling the Joint Warfight - Joint Fires," with Christopher O'Donnell, acting principal deputy assistant Defense secretary for acquisition; Navy Vice Adm. Ron Boxall, director of force structure, resources and assessment for the Joint Staff; Brig. Gen. John Rafferty, director of the Army Long Range Precision Fires Cross Functional Team; Arthur Mabbett, vice president and deputy operations manager at the Leidos Innovations Center; former Deputy Defense Undersecretary for Acquisition and Sustainment Alan Shaffer, visiting fellow at the NDIA Emerging Technologies Institute; and Mark Lewis, executive director of the NDIA Emerging Technologies Institute https://tinyurl.com/448udxch

ADVERTISEMENT