The Pentagon is considering supplying Ukraine with weapons that “cross” Russian lines

The Pentagon is taking in consider a Boeing proposal to supply Ukraine with small, inexpensive precision bombs mounted on numerous missiles, allowing Kiev to strike behind Russian lines as the West grapples with a demand for more weapons.

As the war drags on, Ukraine increasingly needs more advanced weaponry in one moment in which the military stockpiles of the United States and its allies are dwindling.

Industry sources said Boeing’s proposed system, dubbed a “ground-launched small-diameter bomb,” was one of about half a dozen plans to produce the new munitions for Ukraine and Eastern European allies. Washington.

Those bombs could be delivered as early as spring 2023, according to a document reviewed by Reuters and three people familiar with the plan.

The system combines the GBU-39 small diameter bomb and the M26 rocket engine, both of which are available in the United States.

The US military’s top arms buyer, Doug Bush, told reporters at the Pentagon last week that the military is also seeking to ramp up production of 155mm artillery shells, which are manufactured only at government facilities, allowing to military contractors to produce them. Bush added that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to an increase in demand for American-made weapons and ammunition.

“It’s about getting the quantity cheap,” said Tom Karako, a weapons and security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He added that declining US stockpiles help explain the rush to get more weapons now, saying stockpiles are “in down from the levels we would like to maintain and certainly the levels we would need to avoid any conflict with China.”

Karako also noted that the US exit from Afghanistan has made many air-dropped bombs available. These bombs cannot easily be used with Ukrainian aircraft, but “in light of what we are seeing now, we must look for innovative ways to convert them in work capacity”.

While few of these bombs have yet been produced, there are many logistical hurdles to an official purchase. Boeing’s plan calls for a price discovery waiver, which exempts contractors from a thorough review that ensures the Pentagon gets the best possible deal. Any deal would also require at least six suppliers to rapidly expedite shipments of its weapons-making components and services.

A Boeing spokesman declined to comment. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Commander Tim Gorman declined to comment on providing Ukraine with a so-called “specific capability” but said the United States and its allies were “identifying and considering the most appropriate systems” that would help Kiev.

Although the United States has rejected requests to supply missiles with a range of 297 km, the range of the bombs in matter is 150 km, enabling Ukraine to strike vital and hard-to-reach military targets, as well as help it continue its counter-attacks.

Read More About: World News

Follow AsumeTech on

More From Category

More Stories Today

Leave a Reply