What are the lethal weapons that the United States is sending to Ukraine?

Since Russia's February invasion of Ukraine, the US has supplied a real mountain of deadly aid to the Ukrainian military. While the Ukrainian army has received the most assistance, the country's air force and navy have also received significant assistance. Let's take a look at some of the military systems that the US has given to Ukraine so far, which total about 20 billion dollars as of November 2022. ⚠⚒⛓🤯⚠

The US has provided the Ukrainian military with a literal mountain of lethal aid since Russia invaded the country back in February. While the Ukrainian army has received the majority of support, the air force and navy of the nation have also received significant assistance. Let's examine some of the weapon systems the US has so far sent to Ukraine, which as of November 2022 totaled almost 20 billion dollars. The most dangerous job on the battlefield, and for good reason, is being a member of a tank crew, as this war has repeatedly shown. Ukraine has received tons of US anti-tank weapons. The Ukrainian military required a lot of assistance to deal with the Russians because they were flooding the country with thousands of armored vehicles but had little armor to defend themselves.

The Javelin is one of the most well-known anti-tank weapons. Since the middle of the 1990s, the US military has relied heavily on the Javelin anti-armor missile system. Its capacity to attack a target from above while also being a fire and forget weapon contributes to its effectiveness. Because it is fire and forget, the operator can quickly flee if an enemy counterattack occurs once the missile leaves the tube. This is true because once the missile has locked onto the target, it will keep tracking it. The operator can attack a tank's top armor, which is its most exposed area, using the top-down attack feature. The majority of tanks have their thickest armor in the front, then on the sides, the back, and finally on the bottom and top of the tank.

A strong attack here is likely to result in a catastrophic kill due to how much weaker the top is. When the entire tank explodes and is completely destroyed rather than just damaged, which would allow the enemy forces to later repair it, which is a catastrophic kill. The US military has deployed more than 8,500 of these attack platforms to Ukraine as a result of their high level of effectiveness. Now, it's crucial to note that it's not clear if 8,500 refer to CLUs or reusable missile tubes. Given that the Command Launch Unit, or CLU, is the Javelin's brain, this is significant. This is connected to a disposable missile tube, and the two together make up the weapon system. The US has sent 38,000 additional anti-armor systems in addition to Javelins, so Ukraine has received a lot of these.

Even though it's not clear what they could be, AT-4 rockets are most likely what they are. The AT-4 is a mainstay of man-portable anti-armor firepower and has long served as a replacement for the LAW from the Vietnam War. It is a simple but effective weapon system for engaging light armored vehicles, buildings, bunkers, and anything else a soldier needs to blow up from a distance. Its use-it-and-lose-it design makes it a simple but effective weapon system. AT-4s are a great force multiplier for the hundreds of thousands of citizen soldiers Ukraine has enlisted in its National Guard, even though they are not a good substitute for Javelins for taking out tanks.

At the start of the war, these soldiers were frequently thrown into battle without much preparation. They become a force multiplier and gain more self-assurance on the battlefield when this straightforward but efficient weapon system is placed in their hands. The massive amount of artillery the US has sent over, along with artillery shells, has also been a huge boost to confidence. A war of artillery ensued after Ukraine repelled the initial invasion and the Russians switched their attention to eastern Ukraine. The Russian army continuously fires its artillery day and night, according to numerous observers. The number of guns and the amount of ammunition each gun could fire, however, have literally outgunned the Ukrainian artillery.

The US made the decision to provide some equipment to the Ukrainian military because they were under almost constant bombardment. The US has sent 36 105mm guns and 142 155mm guns as part of its extensive aid package, along with more than a million shells to feed them. The need for longer-range artillery by the Ukrainians led the US to send more heavy artillery systems. The Russians could move outside the effective range of older Soviet artillery systems and continue to fire on them because those systems lacked the range of more recent Russian weapons. With heavy American artillery, Russian guns can no longer fire away without being retaliated against because they now run the risk of being hit by a donated M777 howitzer.

The 38 38 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, which was donated to Ukraine, is another artillery system that has been in the news recently. These weapons, also referred to as HIMARS, are revolutionary. One of the standard data links used by the US military to transmit and receive encrypted data over a secure channel is Link 16. It is impenetrable and permits unrestricted communication without concern for being interrupted or knocked out. Other branches, including the Marine Corps, have begun using it even though it is primarily a navy system. This is significant because the HIMARS was the first mobile rocket system the US ever built that could support Link 16. This matters because Ukrainian defenders who are up-link on land, sea, or in the air can send information to the firing units.

Link 16 enables numerous units spread out over a large area to construct a nearly instantaneous fire control solution as opposed to a complex patchwork of various networks and communication routes between other units or branches. With that information, the HIMARS system can launch a real-time, anywhere attack on Russian troops. The US also provided the Ukrainian army with tons of ammunition due to the large number of troops involved.

Over 104,000,000 rounds of ammunition for small arms have been sent from the US since February. As we've previously discussed, the Ukrainians employ a variety of weapons, some of which date back to World War II and others which are more contemporary and would be found on a battlefield in the twenty-first century. It should be made clear that the National Guard receives the majority of the WWII weapons while the majority of their military is equipped with contemporary weapons.