U.S. preparing new $200M military aid package for Ukraine – Reuters

07.10.2023 09:20

Ukrinform

The U.S. administration is expected to announce a new arms package for Ukraine next week as the Pentagon continues to use up funds discovered due to a multi-billion dollar accounting error.

According to Reuters, the Pentagon still has about $5.4 billion of congressionally granted presidential drawdown authority (PDA), after the Pentagon found in June it had overestimated the value of arms shipped to Ukraine by $6.2 billion due to an accounting error. Some of these funds have already been used.

The composition of a new aid package is still being formulated and is set to be unveiled on Wednesday at the 16th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels.

It was expected to have a value of around $200 million.

According to Reuters, if Congress does not provide new funds to buy replacements, and the Pentagon runs out of funds it can reprogram to keep corporate contracts flowing, the U.S., Ukraine and arms makers may be forced to take other steps to backfill stocks.

It is noted that reprogramming, a tool used to shift funds within Department of Defense accounts to meet urgent needs, could be used to buy arms from weapons makers like Lockheed Martin, which makes the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS), and General Dynamics, which makes the 155 millimeter artillery ammunition. Both have been essential to Ukraine's operations.

As Ukrinform reported, the Biden administration is considering using a U.S. State Department's grant program to send additional military aid to Ukraine.