Reuters: America sends “vampires” to Ukraine.
Reuters has written in an exclusive report that US officials plan to send the so-called “Vampire” missile launch system to Ukraine in a new arms package worth 1.3 billion dollars.
The latest U.S. military aid to Ukraine will be unveiled this week. Reuters quoted two U.S. officials as saying that in addition to the Vampire, Kyiv will receive ammunition, radar, several types of suicide drones, and other anti-drone systems.
This new system, which is produced by the American arms manufacturer L3Harris, can be installed on most cargo vehicles, including pickup trucks and trucks, and it is also possible to install it in a fixed location. This system consists of a targeting and launching sensor equipped with four 70 mm laser-guided missiles and can be used for air and ground targets with only one operator.
The new US weapons package also includes two types of suicide munitions (explosive-laden drones that circle the battlefield to find targets), the Phoenix Ghost and the Latched Knife. UAVs of this type were previously sent to Ukraine and included in the US $95 million package of weapons last year.
The L3Harris arms factory first announced the delivery of the Vampire missile launcher to Kyiv and then confirmed that it received a contract worth $40 million from the Pentagon, according to which it will send four more systems to Ukraine by mid-2023 and 10 plans by the end of the year.
Since the start of Russian military operations in Ukraine in February 2022, US President Joe Biden has authorized the direct shipment of $41.3 billion worth of arms to Ukraine, as well as more than $10 billion in arms aid through the so-called ” Security Assistance Initiative for Ukraine/USAI” awarded to Kyiv.
