In a release late Thursday, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced an additional $400 million in aid to Ukraine, which includes Avenger air defense systems and more Stinger missiles.Â
Pentagon will send Ukraine other weapons to fight Russia, including four Avenger surface-to-air missile systems often mounted on a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, commonly known as the Humvee.
“This authorization is the Biden Administration’s twenty-fifth drawdown of equipment from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021,” the news release says.
The Avenger is a turreted, self-propelled, surface-to-air missile system mounted on a 4×4 chassis. It has a range of 285 miles and provides mobile, short-range air defense protection for ground units against a variety of threats to include cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, low-flying/fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
The turret has two Stinger missile launcher pods, each capable of firing up to 4 fire-and-forget infrared/ultraviolet guided missiles in rapid succession. The Avenger can be linked to the Forward Area Air Defense Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (FAAD C3I) system, which permits external radar tracks and messages to be passed to the fire unit to alert and cue the gunner.
In total, the United States has committed more than $19.3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration. Since 2014, the United States has committed more than $21.4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine and more than $18.6 billion since the beginning of Russia’s unprovoked and brutal invasion on February 24.