Just in time for the official visit of Petro Poroshenko in the new York Senate has approved draft Law “about budget of the United States on national defence for the year 2018” (NDAA). The document provides for $500 million to support Ukraine in security and defense spheres.
“The draft law authorizes the granting to our country of lethal weapons of a defensive nature. It also included provisions authorizing the use of funds in the US defense budget to rehabilitate in medical institutions of the United States wounded Ukrainian soldiers, as well as to strengthen the ability of air and naval forces of our state,” – wrote in his Facebook Petro Poroshenko.
According to the Embassy of Ukraine to the USA, first at the legislative level, in addition to the ground weapons, it is proposed to provide Kyiv radar air defense and surveillance of the surface situation, naval anti-mine means and ships coastal action and the coast guard.
According to the Pentagon in 2013 they bought the “Javelin” for approximately $260 thousand for one launcher with a rocket. That is, if even half of the $500 million mentioned in the bill of the Senate about budget allocations, to allow for the purchase and supply of Ukraine, “Javelin”, we can count on about 900 missiles with launchers.
Now, according to experts, the Senate and the House of representatives will compare their versions of the bills on defense appropriations, and, if there are any differences, they are removed, time to take until October 1. In the United States new fiscal year starts not on January 1, as we do, and October 1. Therefore, if all of Ukraine goes well, then lethal defensive weapons we can get before the end of this year. “After the adoption of the bill by the House of representatives, the President signs the document and then it can use the opportunities inherent in the bill, and may not be used. As in the previous laws on the defense appropriations. For example, the law for 2017 was this graph that the funding promised to Ukraine by 50 million on anti-tank systems. But Obama didn’t use it” – like the “Today” analyst of the Institute of world politics Nicholas Beleskov.
According to him, the fact that the bill is the focus on strengthening the overall defense capability of Ukraine, not just the land component is a big plus. What we are talking about naval matters, this is especially a big plus. Because we Russians can’t do less problems and at sea, where is the guarantee that tomorrow they will not start a naval blockade?
“I would say that the us help in the naval sphere we are more critical than in land. But the question becomes, whether they will give us their boat ex coast guard. In fact, it was about their supplies this year. There will arise such situation that the Ukraine is not so much the platform needed (although they are also necessary, because surface ships are very, very bad), but other than that we need shock weapons. That is, anti-ship missiles. Now we have all clung to “Javelin”. A couple of hundred “of Javelinas” we will not make weather. But a couple of hundred American anti-ship missiles, they would have improved the situation,” says Belenkov.
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The expert notes that today it is more appropriate to move the focus from anti-tank systems, anti-ship missiles. “We even had the missiles, “Harpoon”, which Boeing manufactures, or Naval strike missile, produced by Raytheon and another Norwegian company. And they would have qualitatively changed the situation. This is still the time they receive could hypothetically be more likely to occur because it is not a land component, the situation on the sea is not so hot.
But the platform is good, but they need weapons, anti-ship missiles. And the situation is such that we have our own development even needs to begin to pull small boats with anti-ship missiles on the water. But whether it’s the issue. But the production of American systems, which in principle would be easy to integrate into Ukrainian realities… It’s not “Radar” to get here with its successful integration would be a problem, if you take the American “Radar” and our launchers s-300. There are nuances for joint integration, they’re just not compatible, they work on different algorithms, the software is even different,” summed up Mykola Beleskov.
