DOPPELADLER.COM

The UK will send further multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) to Ukraine as part of an enduring commitment to help the country defend itself against Russia’s illegal invasion, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has announced.

Britain will also give a significant number of precision guided M31A1 missiles which can strike targets up to 80km away, enabling Ukraine to continue to defend itself against Russian heavy artillery.

Ukrainian troops have been trained in the UK on how to use the launchers so that they can maximise the effectiveness of the systems. This is in addition to the UK’s commitment to train up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers in infantry battlefield skills over the coming months. Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands have all announced they will be supporting the programme.

Ukraine restated its interest in receiving Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon jets to bolster its depleted combat aviation forces at the same time as the United States confirmed delivery of air-launched anti-radiation missiles to the country.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence (MoD) tweeted an artist's rendering of F-16s in national livery and markings to coincide with Ukrainian Air Force Day on 7 August. “Ukrainian Fighting Falcons strike back,” the post stated. The release of the imagery coincided with imagery released from Russian sources of what purported to be parts from either an AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) or AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) that had been fired at its positions.

Today, President Biden directed the 18th drawdown of an additional $1 billion in weapons and equipment from the Department of Defense inventories. This is the largest single drawdown of U.S. arms and equipment utilizing this authority to date. The package provides a significant amount of additional ammunition, weapons and equipment, the types of which the Ukrainian people are using so effectively to defend their country.

The capabilities in this package include the following: additional ammunition for High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, 75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition, 20 120mm mortar systems and 20,000 rounds of associated mortar ammunition, munitions for national advanced surface-to-air missile systems, or NASAMS, 1,000 Javelin systems and hundreds of AT-4 antiarmor systems, 50 armored medical treatment vehicles, Claymore antipersonnel munitions, C-4 explosives, demolition munitions and demolition equipment and medical supplies, to include first aid kits, bandages, monitors and other equipment. These are all critical capabilities to help the Ukrainians repel the Russian offensive in the east, and also to address evolving developments in the south and elsewhere.

Q: Hi there, and thank you for doing this. I'm sorry if you said this already, but how many rockets for the HIMARS are included in this package?

DR. KAHL: Yeah, so we've never given precise numbers of the rockets. We don't want to tip off the Russians to every last detail. But what I can say is since we provided the HIMARS and the associated munitions, which are referred to as GMLRS, which stands for Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems -- these are precision-guided missiles with about a 70-km range -- we've provided multiple hundreds of these systems in the past few weeks. But I'm not going to go into the details of the specific number in this package.

DR. KAHL: Yeah, great questions. So on the F-16s, a couple of things. As you can appreciate in the PDA package, it makes clearer our overwhelming priority right now is getting the Ukrainians things that are relevant for the current fight.

So right now, the fight is in the east and increasingly in the south. We need to get them capabilities that deliver on a timeframe that's relevant to that. So we're focused on these types of capabilities, not something that might deliver in a year, two, three years, et cetera.

That said, there is work being done here at the Pentagon and elsewhere out in Europe, at EUCOM and elsewhere, to help work with the Ukrainians to identify their kind of medium to long term requirements. So think of things that aren't in the kind of measured in days and weeks but measured in months and a handful of years.

And I think there, there are real questions about what would be most useful in terms of assisting the Ukrainian Air Force and improving its capabilities. It's not inconceivable that down the road, Western aircraft could be part of the mix on that, but the final analysis has not been done.

I will say, though, in the near term, we've been doing lots of things to make Ukraine's existing Air Force stay in the air and be more capable. I would just point to two things.

One, you know, a lot was made about the MiG-29 issue several months ago. Not very much has been noticed about the sheer amounts of spare parts and other things that we've done to help them actually put more of their own MiG-29s in the air and keep those that are in the air flying for a longer period of time.

And then also, in recent PDA packages, we've included a number of anti-radiation missiles that can be fired off of Ukrainian aircraft that can have effects on Russia radars and other things. So there are also things that we're doing to try to make their existing capabilities more effective.

Q: Thank you very much. Is this the first time NASAMS have been part of the package to Ukraine and can you talk a little bit about what limitations there will be on them and have the systems from Norway actually been delivered to Ukraine? And then I have a second one on Afghanistan.

DR. KAHL: Sure. So there are no NASAMS in this package. There are are AMRAAM missiles for the NASAMS. So the NASAMS that are in the pipeline, we think will probably arrive in the next few months, and the AMRAAM missiles that are in this system, which can be used for the NASAMS, they will take some period of time -- they'll have to be looked at to make sure all of the missiles are in good shape, and then they'll get there in time for the NASAMS' arrival. So just to clarify on that specifically.

Att Sverige på begäran av Storbritannien nu bidrar med instruktörer är ett led i att bygga säkerheten tillsammans med andra länder.

Utbildningen som de ukrainska medborgarna får omfattar bland annat sjukvård, vapentjänst och strid. En viktig del av utbildningen är också folkrätt och krigets lagar.

Enligt regeringsbeslutet har Försvarsmakten möjlighet att under tidsperioden 12 augusti-31 december 2022 skicka upp till 120 personer till Storbritannien. Det svenska bidraget kommer ansluta till utbildningen så snart det är praktiskt möjligt.

• https://www.fmn.dk/globalassets/fmn/dokumenter/nyheder/2022/-participants-copenhagenukraine-conference-.pdf

Copenhagen Declaration on Ukraine, 11 August 2022

The defense ministers and representatives of Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Denmark and key allies and partners met today in Copenhagen to discuss how to enhance and sustain longer-term military support to Ukraine in light of Russia’s continued brutal and unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

They discussed specific projects and ways to

• facilitate continued long-term funding

• enhance armaments production, including of artillery and ammunition,

• develop and strengthen training of Ukrainian soldiers, and

• assist Ukraine’s efforts within demining in the best possible way.

They agreed to continue and enhance their funding of military assistance to Ukraine within these four priority areas based on national decisions and procedures.

They agreed to meet virtually again in September in order to ensure continued progress.

They emphasized the important efforts made by the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group and the International Donor Coordination Center (IDCC) and committed to continue cooperation in that key framework and to intensify the coordination of support with the European Union and bilateral frameworks.

theoderich hat geschrieben: ↑So 5. Jun 2022, 11:58

• § 120.19 Reexport.
  
  (a) Reexport, except as set forth in § 120.54, § 126.16, or § 126.17, means:
  
  (1) An actual shipment or transmission of a defense article from one foreign country to another foreign country, including the sending or taking of a defense article to or from such countries in any manner;
  
  (2) Releasing or otherwise transferring technical data to a foreign person who is a citizen or permanent resident of a country other than the foreign country where the release or transfer takes place (a “deemed reexport”); or
  
  (3) Transferring registration, control, or ownership of any aircraft, vessel, or satellite subject to the ITAR between foreign persons.
  
  (b) Any release outside the United States of technical data to a foreign person is deemed to be a reexport to all countries in which the foreign person has held or holds citizenship or holds permanent residency.

  § 127.1 Violations.
  
  (a) Without first obtaining the required license or other written approval from the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, it is unlawful:
  
  [...]
  
  (2) To reexport or retransfer or attempt to reexport or retransfer any defense article, technical data, or defense service from one foreign end-user, end-use, or destination to another foreign end-user, end-use, or destination for which a license or written approval is required by this subchapter, including, as specified in § 126.16(h) and § 126.17(h) of this subchapter, any defense article, technical data, or defense service that was exported from the United States without a license pursuant to any exemption under this subchapter;

  https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-22/c ... bchapter-M