While tactfully avoiding direct participation in the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. keeps stepping up its efforts to reinforce Ukraine’s military power to resist Russian aggression and push back the invading forces. Since Russia has lesser troop strength, it relies heavily on the Battalion Tactical Groups (BTG), the self-contained combat units, to carry out its military operations on the ground. Russia’s over-reliance on tanks for providing fire-power and artillery and infantry to create a deadly punch has its vulnerabilities. The U.S. is helping to enhance the range of Ukraine’s military equipment by supplying weapons that can weaken the BTGs by targeting the tanks. A quick look at the United States Special Forces’ weapons given to Ukraine indicates how the U.S. is targeting the vulnerabilities of the Russian forces with its choice of weapons provided to Ukraine.
Reinforcing Ukraine’s military power
When the Russian invasion began in the last week of February, Ukraine had 196,600 active military personnel, of which 125,600 were ground troops. The remaining consisted of air personnel and naval forces and 900,000 reservists. In addition, civilians between 18 and 60 have volunteered their services to take up arms to defend the country, which bolsters the number considerably.
During the attack, the list of Ukraine’s military equipment consisted mainly of 2,000 tanks, 2,870 armored vehicles, and 1,960 artillery pieces. The country’s military abilities pale compared to Russia, which is among the mightiest forces in the world.
Ukraine is heavily dependent on military support, especially arms and ammunition from the U.S., U.K., and other European nations, to enhance its fire-power that helps to put up a brave fight.
Plenty of U.S. weapons is reaching Ukraine
With the scarcity of Ukraine weapons, the supply of weapons from friendly nations like the U.S., UK, France, and other European countries has become critical to waging war against Russia. The US has been the biggest arms supplier to Ukraine since the Ukraine invasion. Since the start of the Biden Administration, the U.S. security assistance to Ukraine reached $2billion, of which $1 billion was committed during the first fortnight of March.
The list of weapons supplied to Ukraine includes 600 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 2,600 Javelin anti-armor systems, 5 Mi17 helicopters, three patrol boats, four counter- artillery and counter unmanned aerial system tracking radars, 200 grenade launchers, machine guns, and shotguns, respectively, along with 70 HMMWV armored vehicles and many more. Apart from these, the U.S. has committed more quantities of similar weapons, amounting to an $800 million package that will send part of the supplies to reach Ukraine in due course.
Striking where it hurts
From the list of weapons, it is clear that there is a greater emphasis on the Javelin missiles that can destroy tanks, and Ukraine has been successfully using it to cause heavy damage to the Russian tanks. Among claims and counter-claims, it is sure that Russia has lost a significant number of tanks that slowed down the pace of war.
Ukraine’s military power is more potent than before, and it succeeded in blunting the Russian attacks.
