WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will sell Ukraine $138 million of equipment to maintain and upgrade its HAWK air defense systems to help defend against Russian drone and cruise missile attacks, a U.S. State Department official told Reuters on Tuesday.
In 2022, the U.S. began shipping HAWK interceptor missiles to Ukraine as an upgrade to the shoulder-launched Stinger air defense missile systems – a smaller, shorter-range air defense system.
Tuesday’s emergency Foreign Military Sale (FMS) uses $138 million of the $300 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) that Congress passed as part of the annual defense spending bill recently signed into law.
Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) had been used previously to transfer HAWK equipment to Ukraine. Presidential Drawdown Authority allows the United States to transfer defense articles and services from stocks quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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