LONDON — The Biden administration has announced that Ukraine will receive $3 billion in military aid. This is the largest amount since Russia launched its invasion in February.
The Pentagon said it meets both Ukraine’s “immediate and long-term security assistance needs.”
Among the 245,000 rounds and laser-guided rocket systems listed in the Department of Defense security assistance to Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) was the VAMPIRE anti-unmanned aerial system.
VAMPIRE is an acronym for “Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment”. In short, this system turns a pickup truck or other vehicle into a mobile missile launcher.
According to Matthew Schmidt, director of international affairs and associate professor of national security at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, by retrofitting existing vehicles, kits will have a more immediate impact than other forms of military aid. can give
“Most of the kits announced under the auspices are intended to support Ukraine’s military needs in the medium term, more than a year from now, even in the post-war environment,” Schmidt told Yahoo News. “But VAMPIRE is a piece of equipment that could have an impact on the battlefield right now, assuming it hits theaters soon enough.”
Schmidt continues:If you can flood the battlefield with these, you can deny ISR so you can create a fire effect to slow down and pin down small enemy units [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] From their own drones they can harass or eliminate key elements of their infantry units. “
The kit consists of a quadruple rocket launcher and a ball that acts as a sensor. L3Harris, his manufacturer, says VAMPIRE can be installed on a vehicle in two hours and can be applied by one person.
“The VAMPIRE system itself is an anti-UAS (unmanned aerial system) system,” Colin Kahl, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, said at a press conference last Wednesday. “It’s basically a dynamic system that uses small missiles to launch UAVs from the air.”
A spokesperson for L3Harris said of the shipment of kits to Ukraine: their mission. “
The US has given Ukraine more than $13.5 billion since January 2021, and more than $15.5 billion since Kremlin-led forces annexed southern Crimea in 2014, according to the Pentagon.