US to send new missiles to Ukraine with a 93-mile range
US to send new missiles to Ukraine with a 93-mile range
Washington is preparing to send missiles to Ukraine which could strike almost the entire Russian-occupied region of the country, US officials have said.
Two officials said the weapons announcement would be made this week in a new $2 billion package of military aid, according to Reuters.
It would be the first time Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB), a new weapon designed by Boeing, were sent.
The cheap gliding missiles have a range of more than 93 miles due to fold-out wings which extend their range, a dramatic increase over the 50 miles range of the Himars rocket systems which changed the face of the war when Washington sent them last summer.
It would mean every inch of Russian-occupied Ukraine, apart from most of the Crimean peninsula, would be in range of Ukrainian forces, likely forcing Moscow to redistribute ammunition and fuel storage sites.
The small, GPS-guided bombs, which are reportedly capable of hitting targets as small as 3ft-wide, are fitted onto abundantly available rockets that can be fired from Himars, M270 launchers and aircraft.
Mykhilo Podolyak, the Ukrainian Presidential aide, said talks on the supply of the longer range missiles and attack aircraft were under way.
“Each war stage requires certain weapons. Amassing [Russia’s] reserves in the occupied territories requires specifics from [Ukraine] and partners,” Mr Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said supplying the longer-range rockets “would not change the course of events” but would “escalate tensions,” a response often used by Moscow to stoke fears of nuclear escalation.
The GLSDB combines the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb with the M26 rocket motor, both of which are common in American inventories.
US stocks 'getting low'
Tom Karako, a weapons and security expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said buying missiles such as the GLSDB direct from industry, rather than from existing weapon stocks, was “about getting quantity at a cheap cost”.
Mr Karako said concerns over depleting US stockpiles are behind an ongoing production rush as current stocks are “getting low relative to the levels we like to keep on hand”.
A Western official said on Tuesday “what any armed forces needs is increased depth, increased accuracy and lethality and anything which contributes to that will be useful to [Ukraine]”.
The official dismissed Russian claims to have destroyed a lot of Ukraine’s artillery as “misinformation” adding Moscow’s narrative of claiming to have destroyed much more of Kyiv’s military capability than was actually the case was “a feature of this campaign”.
Articles-Popular
- Main
- Contact Us
- Planetary Existences-2
- Planetary Existences
- TWO REVELATIONS-2
- The Two Revelations
- Jeffery Epstein - The Saga - 9
- Jeffery Epstein - The Saga - 8
- Jeffery Epstein - The Saga - 10
- Universality of Initiation
- The Participants In The Mysteries-2
- The Path Of Initiation
- Initiation and the Devas
- Discipleship - Group Relations - 2
- The Fourth Way - Study of Oneself - P.D.Ouspensky
- Impeachment Investigators Subpoena White House - Ukraine
- The Probationary Path - 2
- The Final Initiation
- The Succeeding Two Initiations
- The Participants In The Mysteries
- Discipleship - Group Relationships
- Discipleship
- Jeffery Epstein - The Saga - 7
- The Fourth Way - Wrong Functions - P.D Ouspensky
- Statues are a mark of honour. Like Edward Colston, Cecil Rhodes and Oliver Cromwell have to go
- Jeffery Epstein - The Saga - 6
Articles - Latest
- Jamaica condemns Frank Hester’s Diane Abbott comments amid concern over contract
- The latest on the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse
- Putin will be ruthless after the Moscow attack, but Russians don’t trust him to keep them safe Opinion by Andrei Soldatov
- A, B and C Influences: The Fourth way -P.D.Ouspensky.
- Russian court rejects legal claim against prison by Alexei Navalny’s mother
- Botswana's president accuses British MPs of 'colonial' interference over demands for trophy hunting ban - as Gary Lineker is told to come and see the destruction caused by elephants
- As election nears, Venezuelan government keeps arresting opponents allegedly tied to criminal plots
- Vietnam loses its second president in two years amid concerns for political stability
- Falling armed forces recruitment levels deemed ‘national security crisis’
- Ohio state Rep. Ismail Mohamed delivers victory speech in Somali after winning district primary
- Vladimir Putin sends lifeline to Cuba as country faces total collapse
- 'Death or surrender': IDF arrests 650, including 'senior Hamas officials,' in Shifa
- NATO ally ready to deploy 60,000 troops to Ukraine as Vladimir Putin threatens retaliation
- The country planning on funnelling Putin's soldiers 'into kill zones' as they prep for war
- India blocks access, residency permits of overseas ‘citizen’ critics