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The US is to provide $125 million to Ukraine in new military assistance, according to a CNN report citing anonymous officials.
Members of Congress were informally notified of the Department of Defense’s plans.
The chairs and ranking members of the relevant congressional committees will have a chance to review the aid packages before Congress is formally notified. This is the first half of the $250 million in Ukraine Security Assistance that has been appropriated by Congress.
“As a matter of policy, the Department of Defense does not comment on or confirm potential or pending security assistance packages while under Congressional review,” Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Carla Gleason told CNN.
The assistance package reportedly includes counter-artillery radars and armed Mark VI patrol boats.
The boats, specifically, are “seen as particularly important given Ukraine’s tensions with Russia in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.”
After all, confrontations of various kind are harder to pull off when the marine capabilities of Ukraine are so limited compared to what Russia has to offer.
Reports in Ukrainian media claim that the US allegedly plans to supply Ukraine with only 12 Mk VI missile boats, which should be part of the Ukrainian naval forces on the Sea of Azov, with some of these boats supposedly armed with Hellfire missile launchers.
However, it should be noted that in the package of military assistance in the amount of $ 125 million, given the specifics of supplies through the American program of intergovernmental Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, only two, or three MK VI missile boats can be included.
Mk VI missile boats were developed and are being built by the American shipbuilding company SAFE Boats International in Bremerton (Washington) since 2014 for the coastal guard of the U.S. Navy; in total, the U.S. fleet received 12 Mk VI missile boats between 2015-2018, and the general plans for their purchases by the U.S. fleet make up 48 units. The purchase price of one boat with weapons and equipment for 2014 amounted to $15 million for the US Department of Defense.
The all-aluminum MK VI missile boat type has a total displacement of 72 tons, a length of 25.8 m, a width of 6.2 m and a draft of 1.2 m.
It is equipped with two MTU 16V2000M94 diesel engines with a total capacity of 5200 hp, with two water cannons and is capable of speeds up to 45 knots. Cruising range 690 miles at a speed of 30 knots. The crew of the boat is 10-11 people, and another seven or eight are able to accommodate additionally (a total of 18 seats).
The standard armament of the boat is two 25-mm automatic remotely controlled Mk 38 Mod 2 units and six 12.7 mm M2 machine guns on turret installations (the installation of 7.62 mm machine guns or 40 mm is possible automatic grenade launchers Mk 19).
The Mk 50 fire control system is actually a ship’s version of the land-based remote-control module fire control system for the M153 CROWS armored vehicles. It is currently into consideration whether to equip the missile boats with small-sized rockets VGM-176V Griffin or Hellfire.
Regardless, if true and the Ukrainian border guard receives 12 of the MK VI missile boats, this would greatly facilitate its capability to carry out aggressive actions against Russian military and civilian targets in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.
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These boats are “perfectly” suited to retake Crimea from the evil Russkies! I hope life jackets are included in the package, because they will be needing them ? (sarc.)
Boats became pretty much obsolete & irrelevant Sitting Ducks…
They say the law of the land was never ruled by the sea:
Nice gesture by trump,if ukraine does the right by the present us leadership,help investigate the us taxpayers scammers of bidens,pelosis,soros,etc,atleast this is more than they combined ever gave!
Who pays for this? Ukraine or USA?
paid by us but with string attached and corruption from officials, maybe some additional tax policy or additional cia agents
Will be likely pressed into the maritime forces of the DPR and LPR in no time after their impounding.
Yet another colossal waste of.money that gives absolutely no benefit to the US taxpayers. I think the ghost of the soviet union is alive and well and is getting revenge on the US from beyond the grave lol
Well. Not so. The Safeboat people definitely will make a boatload of money (pun intended). In fact this is the whole point. Safeboat makes money. The lobbyists increase their reputation and continue to get paid big bucks for coming through. The congress critters who pushed this through go onto to sit on the corporate board of safeboat and the lobbyist firms that worked for them. This is after they leave office to get their payback for approving this nonsense. Everybody knows it does nothing for Ukrainian defense. Actually the opposite because if there is a serious incident involving these weapons Russia has an excuse to respond in brutal fashion.
i am saying for the average american taxpayer it is a waste of money, i know the MIC and lobbyists will make profit and that russia can take out the boats no problem
That’s why my American boss doesn’t afford to increase my wage, I will work for a Russian boss :)
I’m sure that if the Russians greased the right palms some Ukrainian will sell one of these boots to them. If they wanted too. Getting full specs is probably a lot cheaper.
won’t make one iota of a difference – the disturbances along the divisional border will continue but return crimea to kiev, no. but a new toy for zelensky to look at but and unless the disturbed states of A pays the fuel, they’ll adorne the odessa harbour 24/7, great joy with the gifts from the disturbed states of A.
What would happen if Ukraine attacked a Russian Naval vessel? I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near Kiev at the time.
You can see them trying.
Didn’t USS Donald Cook lead a NATO fleet, trying to take Crimea and move NATO into Sevastapol? Before they got traumatised by the Russian whicker baskets, back in 2014. Only the ship came across Bastion, smiling sweetly at her. Anybody seen a destroyer achieve a ‘figure of 8’ turn in the Black Sea?
Why is the US obsessed with NON-NATO Ukraine and why do US President’s flock to Victor Punchuk and his best mate George Sorass?
fishing boats …
Well this is more bad news for any American schmuck who still has to work for a living and pay taxes. Question: When the hell is any other country going to give the US military or humanitarian assistance? After all, the US has been financially broke at all levels of society (consumer debt of ~$14.15 TRILLION dollars and a national debt of ~$22 TRILLION). Countries with a higher standard of living or better quality of life than the US must be laughing their asses off. Traurig aber wahr!
The only question I have is “Will these weapons make it easier for Ukraine to shoot down another commercial airliner full of innocent folks?”
It will take around 6 months to a year per to train each ship’s crew to become profecient. Along with active crew members the maintenance and supply infrastructue needs training and also foreign military and civilians on how to integrate them into tactical use by regular military. Giving fancy toys to a Ukraine military that cannot even get it together enough no matter their overwhelming #s and men and armor, who cannot defeat civilian fighters in two tiny breakaway factions , boys like their toys. That said their capabilities will be as part of US/NATO naval forces not as some kind of independent Ukraine navy.. Every missle they fire, maintenance of ships, weapon and telecommunication during trainong and later exercises is more money to US military industrials and more political reliance upon US/NATO. US comes incountry seemingly on benign and cheap assistance, but knows huge gains of monetary and political power over host country’s future. Personally have met and known people in Washinton State who Fed in and build those ships, do not know crew members but they are not some damn obsolete Pieces of equipment like regular Ukraine navy is used to. Their design is not that of strictly sea lane border coast guard, although the can be used in such a wasteful manner, but are designed as both task force protectors and attack boats for land and sea targets. Russia’s newly completed train bridge into Crimea would be an easily destroyed target for them. Ukraine government of itself cannot afford , it is flat asses broke and in debt to US/NATO directly and as loan guarantee towards debt to other nations, look into trade deals that will not reward Ukraine’s citizens other than a small political/ military/ financialy connected group. By itself Ukraine is not any threat to Russia, it is but one more subservient puppet State within US Empire, who is giving the Empire s military its soul.