The Pentagon said it would give Ukraine $2.2 billion in weapons, including long-range rockets that can hit targets 150 km away.
Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said on February 3 that the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb is part of the new aid package for Ukraine (GLSDB). Rider said, “This gives them the power to attack farther away.”
The GLSDB combines the M26 rocket and the GBU-39 small-diameter bomb. It can be launched from a ground platform like the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MRLS) or the M142 High Mobility Rocket System (HIMARS).
With a range of 150 km, the GLSDB can hit Russian positions far behind the front lines in the Donbas region, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces, and northern Crimea.
According to estimates by American experts, the first batch of GLSDB may take nine months to get to Ukraine. Boeing, one of the two companies that built the GLSDB, and the Pentagon both refused to say anything about delivery times.
The new US aid package is worth $2.2 billion. Since the war began in February 2022, the US has given Ukraine $29.3 billion in military aid. The package has 80-km-range HIMARS rockets, FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles, medical supplies, winter gear, and many other weapons and ammunition.
The aid package also includes air defense equipment like 190 heavy machine guns and two MIM-23 Hawk missile complexes. To shoot down enemy UAVs with a thermal imager.
Even though Ukraine and Russia were fighting hard along the front lines, the US announced a new aid package. Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said that the new batch of weapons “helps Ukraine defend itself” against Russia’s military campaign. He also said Washington would stand with Kyiv until Moscow stopped the fighting.