Some of the armaments in a purported $3 billion aid package to Kiev may take a long time to have an impact on the battlefield.
According to Western media sources, it may take years for some of the weaponry in the planned “biggest ever” delivery of US military aid to Kiev to actually reach Ukraine.
On Tuesday, a number of mainstream media outlets claimed unnamed US officials as saying that a $3 billion package of military assistance to Ukraine would soon be announced. It would be the biggest of its kind thus far if confirmed. In its conflict with Russia, Washington is by far the largest provider of military equipment to Ukraine.
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However, some of the promised equipment “will not be in the hands of Ukrainian fighters for months or years,” according to NBC News, one of the outlets that reported the upcoming package. Included in the package are advanced weapons that are still in the development phase, it explained.
The same caveat was cited by the Associated Press, which said that it may take “a year or two” for the arms to reach the battlefield, according to its sources. Washington expects Ukrainian forces “to fight for years to come,” US officials told the AP.
A weapon system that Ukraine was promised months ago but hasn’t received is the AeroVironment Switchblade 600 drone. Defense News reported this week that within a month, the Pentagon intends to finalize the contract required to dispatch 10 of the infamous “kamikaze drones.”
Aleksey Reznikov, the defense minister of Ukraine, requested last month that foreign arm manufacturers test new weapons in his nation. He promised to give in-depth reports on the experiences Ukrainian soldiers had using the prototypes that were made available to them.
