US Military Aid

The United States will provide nearly USD 1 billion more in longer-term weapons support to Ukraine, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday as the Biden administration rushes to spend all the congressionally approved money it has left to bolster Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month. The latest package will include more drones and munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, that the US has provided. While these weapons are critically needed now, they will be funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for longer-term systems to be put on contract. The weapon systems purchased are often intended to support Ukraine's future military capabilities, not make an immediate difference on the battlefield. The USD 1 billion package is on top of an additional USD 725 million in US military assistance, including counter-drone systems and HIMARS munitions, announced on Monday that would be drawn from the ...

The report states that the arms sales package also includes the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System and associated equipment

PDA enables the US to swiftly deliver equipment and weapons from its existing stockpile to allied nations during crises

The Biden administration will send about USD 125 million in new military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Thursday, even as Washington works to get a better understanding of Kyiv's incursion into Russia and how it advances the broader battlefield goals more than two years into the war. U.S. officials said the latest package of aid includes air defense missiles, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Javelins and an array of other anti-armour missiles, counter-drone and counter-electronic warfare systems and equipment, 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, vehicles and other equipment. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not been publicly announced. The formal announcement could come as soon as Friday, which is the eve of Ukraine's Independence Day. The weapons are being provided through presidential drawdown authority, which means they are taken from Pentagon stockpiles and can be delivered more quickly. The aid comes as ...

The US will send USD 1.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine, officials announced on Monday, including an array of munitions for air defence systems, artillery, mortars and anti-tank and anti-ship missiles. The package includes USD 1.5 billion in funding for long-term contracts through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, and USD 200 million in immediate military aid taken from Pentagon stockpiles. The latest infusion of weapons comes a bit more than two weeks after the NATO summit in Washington, where allies focused a significant amount of time on shoring up support for Ukraine as it fends off Russian forces. President Joe Biden announced during the summit that the U.S. would send a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, answering a key plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. NATO members agreed to create a new program to provide reliable military aid to Ukraine and prepare for its eventual membership in the alliance. And they declared Ukraine was on an irreversible

The US military-built pier to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza will be dismantled and brought home, ending a mission that has been fraught with repeated weather and security problems that limited how much food and other supplies could get to starving Palestinians. As the US military stepped away from the sea route for humanitarian aid on Wednesday, questions swirled about Israel's new plan to use the port at Ashdod as a substitute. There are few details on how it will work and lingering concerns about whether aid groups will have enough viable land crossings to get assistance into the territory besieged by war between Israel and Hamas. Critics call the pier a USD 230 million boondoggle that failed to bring in the level of aid needed to stem a looming famine. The US military, however, has maintained that it served as the best hope as aid only trickled in during a critical time of near-famine in Gaza and that it got close to 20 million pounds (9 million kilograms) of desperately needed .

Netanyahu has not specified what weapons were being held up by the US

A string of security, logistical and weather problems has battered the plan to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza through a US military-built pier. Broken apart by strong winds and heavy seas just over a week after it became operational, the project faces criticism that it hasn't lived up to its initial billing or its USD 320 million price tag. US officials say, however, that the steel causeway connected to the beach in Gaza and the floating pier are being repaired and reassembled at a port in southern Israel, then will be reinstalled and working again next week. While early Pentagon estimates suggested the pier could deliver up to 150 truckloads of aid a day when in full operation, that has yet to happen. Bad weather has hampered progress getting aid into Gaza from the pier, while the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah has made it difficult, if not impossible at times, to get aid into the region by land routes. Aid groups have had mixed reactions bot

This marks the fourth installment of military assistance for Ukraine since the passing of a long-awaited foreign aid bill by Congress last month

Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built US floating pier into the besieged enclave for the first time on Friday as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hinder food and other supplies reaching people there. The shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day entering the Gaza Strip as Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah as its 7-month offensive against Hamas rages on. But the US and aid groups also warn that the pier project is not considered a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered Gaza on an average day. The operation's success also remains tenuous due to the risk of militant attack, logistical hurdles and a growing shortage of fuel for the trucks to run due to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip since Hamas' October 7 attack on

The US military finished installing a floating pier for the Gaza Strip on Thursday, with officials poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. The final, overnight construction sets up a complicated delivery process more than two months after US President Joe Biden ordered it to help Palestinians facing starvation as food and other supplies fail to make it in as Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push on that southern city on the Egyptian border. Fraught with logistical, weather and security challenges, the maritime route is designed to bolster the amount of aid getting into the Gaza Strip, but it is not considered a substitute for far cheaper land-based deliveries that aid agencies say are much more sustainable. The boatloads of aid will be deposited at a port facility built by the Israelis just southwest of Gaza City and then distributed by aid groups. US ..

Russian troops were locked in intense battles with Ukrainian soldiers around the embattled town of Vovchansk in northeast Ukraine on Monday, pushing ahead with a ground offensive that opened a new front and put more pressure on overstretched Ukrainian forces. Moscow's renewed northeast offensive, launched late last week, was the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began. In just two days, Moscow has captured between 100 to125 square kilometers (38 to 47 sq miles) that includes at least seven villages, most of them already depopulated, according to two open source monitoring analysts. Vovchansk, among the largest towns in the area whose pre-war population of 17,000 had dwindled to just 2,500 before Russia renewed its ground assault last week, has emerged as a key focus of the pitched battles engulfing the Kharkiv region. By Monday, only 200 to 300 residents remained, said Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov, as Russian forces closed in from three sides. Poor

This package is the third slated for Kyiv after the US passed the national security supplemental last month that included $61 billion for Kyiv

A USD 8 billion defence package approved by the US House of Representatives over the weekend will strengthen the deterrence against authoritarianism in the West Pacific ally chain, Taiwan's President-elect Lai Ching-te said Tuesday, in a reference to key rival China. The funding will also help ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and also boost confidence in the region Lai, currently Taiwan's vice president, told visiting Michigan Representatives Lisa McClain, a Republican, and Democrat Dan Kildee at a meeting at the Presidential Office Building in the capital Taipei. In the face of authoritarian expansionism, Taiwan is determined to safeguard democracy and also safeguard our homeland, Lai said. Also known as William Lai, US-educated former medical researcher is despised by Beijing for his opposition to political unification with the mainland. In recent elections, the pro-unification Nationalists won a narrow majority in the legislature, but their influence on foreign

House Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing toward action this week on aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, unveiling an elaborate plan Monday to break the package into separate votes to squeeze through the House's political divides on foreign policy. Facing an outright rebellion from conservatives fiercely opposed to aiding Ukraine, the Republican speaker's move on the foreign aid package was a potentially watershed moment, the first significant action on the bill after more than two months of delay. But Johnson's intention to hold four separate votes on parts of the package also left it open to being significantly altered from the USD 95 billion aid package the Senate passed in February. It's unclear if the House could end up with a package that is similar to the Senate's bill or something significantly different, which could complicate the months-long, painstaking effort to get Congress to approve military funding for Ukraine. We will let the House work its will, Johnson told ...

President Joe Biden's top foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan sought to reassure Ukrainians during an unannounced visit to Kyiv that the US will continue to support their efforts to fend off Russia's two-year-old invasion. The national security adviser expressed optimism Wednesday that lawmakers in Washington will break a month-long logjam and approve tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid to Ukraine. Russian forces have exploited the shortfall to make some gains in the conflict. "We will get a strong bipartisan vote in Congress," Sullivan said during a press conference. "We will get that money to you as we should, so I don't think we need to speak about Plan B today." He also acknowledged that the process had "taken too long". Sullivan said the US would consider the conflict a victory for Ukraine if it emerges from the war as a sovereign, democratic and free country. He sought to reassure Ukrainians that the US will continue to support them as it did since the .

US military C-130 cargo planes dropped food in pallets over Gaza on Saturday in the opening stage of an emergency humanitarian assistance authorized by President Joe Biden after more than 100 Palestinians who had surged to pull goods off an aid convoy were killed during a chaotic encounter with Israeli troops. Three planes from Air Forces Central dropped 66 bundles containing about 38,000 meals into Gaza at 8:30 am EST (3:30 pm local). The bundles were dropped in southwest Gaza, on the beach along the territory's Mediterranean coast. The airdrop was coordinated with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, which said it had two food airdrops Saturday in northern Gaza and has conducted several rounds in recent months. The combined operation included US Air Force and RJAF C-130 aircraft and respective Army Soldiers specialized in aerial delivery of supplies, built bundles and ensured the safe drop of food aid, US Central Command said in a post on "X", formerly known as Twitter. The US airdrop

House Republicans will move forward with a USD 17.6 billion package next week that provides military aid to Israel and replenish US weapons, but leaves out more help for Ukraine, underscoring the challenges facing supporters of a comprehensive national security package that would also include billions of dollars for immigration enforcement. The move gives Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans the chance to show support for Israel even though there is little chance the Senate will go along. Meanwhile, text of a broader Senate compromise is expected to be released this weekend and a key test vote on that package will be held during the week. Johnson said that Senate leadership is aware that by failing to include the House in their negotiations, they have eliminated the ability for swift consideration of any legislation. As I have said consistently for the past three months, the House will have to work its will on these issues and our priorities will need to be addressed, Johnson

Guyana's Attorney General Anil Nandlall said on Thursday that Guyana's government has reassured neighbouring Venezuela there is no plan for the US to establish a military base in the South American country and that it has not made a formal request for one. Nandlall spoke to The Associated Press days after Daniel P. Erikson, US deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Western Hemisphere, visited Guyana and one day after Guyanese officials announced they were seeking help from the US to improve its defence capabilities. Nandlall and other officials in Guyana have sought to temper tensions with Venezuela over a disputed region known as Essequibo rich in oil and minerals that represents two-thirds of Guyana and that Venezuela claims as its own. We have not been approached by the United States to establish a military base in Guyana, said Guyanese Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, adding that the government does not conduct public policy at press conferences. Erikson visited just weeks

'This package provides up to $250 million of arms and equipment under previously directed drawdowns for Ukraine'