{"id":1569423,"date":"2022-07-25T08:07:34","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T12:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1569423"},"modified":"2022-07-25T08:07:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T12:07:52","slug":"u-s-sends-more-rocket-systems-tactical-drones-to-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-sends-more-rocket-systems-tactical-drones-to-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Sends More Rocket Systems, Tactical Drones to Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-s-sends-more-rocket-systems-tactical-drones-to-ukraine%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1569423&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"inline-image align-\">\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>\n            A Marine Corps M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System attached to Marine Rotational Force-Darwin fires a Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System while conducting an emergency fire mission during Exercise Koolendong at Bradshaw Field Training Area, NT, Australia, on Aug. 29, 2021.   (Cpl. Colton Garrett\/U.S. Marine Corps photo )\n          <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Friday approved a new $270 million military aid package that will send Ukraine additional rocket systems, ammunition and tactical drones to help that country\u2019s troops combat invading Russian forces, defense officials said Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">The aid will include four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and accompanying ammunition, 36,000 rounds of howitzer ammunition, 580 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones and an undisclosed amount of additional anti-armor systems and vehicles, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cRussia continues \u2026 launch[ing] strikes across the country, striking malls, apartment buildings [and] killing innocent Ukrainian civilians,\u201d Kirby said. \u201cIn the face of these atrocities, the president has been clear that we&#8217;re going to continue to support the government and its people for as long as it takes.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">About $100 million will be used to purchase the Phoenix Ghosts from the defense industry, he said. Phoenix Ghosts are dubbed \u201ckamikaze drones\u201d for their ability to crash into a target and explode. The rest of the weapons and equipment will come from U.S. stockpiles, he said.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">With the new aid package, the U.S. has provided $8.2 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Biden took office in January 2021. Most of the aid has been sent since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Kirby said.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">Including the new military aid, the U.S. has now pledged 16 rocket systems to Ukraine, the initial 12 of which are already being used \u201ceffectively\u201d in Ukraine, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cToday, the Ukrainians are effectively employing these HIMARS with strikes against Russian command and control nodes, their logistical networks, their field artillery and air defense sites and many other targets,\u201d he said. \u201cThese strikes are steadily degrading the Russian ability to supply their troops, command and control their forces and carry out their illegal war of aggression.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">The rocket systems can strike targets up to 43 miles away with 500-pound, precision-guided ammunition, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said last month.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday claimed its forces had destroyed four U.S.-supplied rocket systems in Ukraine this month, but a senior U.S. military denied that was true as of Friday morning.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cAll of the HIMARS continue to really to be a thorn in the Russian side,\u201d said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. \u201cOver the past week, [Ukrainians] continue to prosecute targets related to command and control, ammunition, logistics support areas \u2013\u00ac all of those having a very significant effect on the Russians\u2019 ability to mount offensive operations and continue anything that they&#8217;re intending to do.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">While there is evidence that Russia is trying to target the rocket systems on the battlefield, they have not been able to do so \u2013 likely because Ukrainian forces understand the terrain better and know where to hide them, the official said.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cI&#8217;d love to say [HIMARS] can, like Star Trek, beam themselves around the battlefield, but they can&#8217;t,\u201d the official said. \u201cIt just comes down to [the fact that] Ukrainians understand the ground, they understand how to employ them [and] they understand the places they can move them to.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">Long-range fires such as rockets, artillery and tactical drones have been important since Russia shifted its focus three months ago to the eastern Donbas region, where the landscape resembles the flat, rolling plains of Kansas, the Defense Department has said.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">The U.S. is also considering fighter jets for Ukraine \u2013 something it has yet to provide the Ukrainians since the start of the war, Kirby said. Though he did not mention the type of aircraft being considered, he said it would not be Soviet-era jets that the Ukrainians are used to flying.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201c[The Defense Department] is making some preliminary exploration into the feasibility of potentially providing fighter aircraft to the Ukrainians,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it&#8217;s not going to be something that they&#8217;re going to be able to execute immediately or even in the short term because integrating and operating any kind of aircraft \u2013 especially advanced player aircraft with complex sensors and systems weapons capabilities \u2013 that&#8217;s a difficult endeavor.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">Under consideration is the depth of training that it would take to ensure Ukrainians can operate and maintain the American systems, and how to keep the country in supply of spare parts, Kirby said.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cThere&#8217;s a whole supply chain that goes with keeping an airframe in the air and all that has to be factored in,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">The U.S. in early March rejected calls to send Soviet-era jets to Ukraine after Poland publicly stated it was willing to donate its fleet of MiG-29 fighter jets to the U.S. for the war if the American military would deliver them to Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cThe intelligence community has assessed the transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO,\u201d Kirby said at the time as the then-chief Pentagon spokesman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Marine Corps M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System attached to Marine Rotational Force-Darwin fires a Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System while conducting an emergency fire mission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1575402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1569423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1569423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1575402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1569423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1569423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1569423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}