US to Ukraine aid tops 30 billion, with more than 75 billion promised

Just how much aid has the US sent to Ukraine? Aid is mostly coming in the form of direct military assistance; 75% of promised aid is direct military hardware. According to defense.gov, Ukraine has received over 30 billion of military gear so far, with about 400 million of it coming in March. Congress has promised 75 billion total in direct aid, but much of the military equipment deliveries have yet to happen.

Is Ukraine ready for a Spring offensive?

With less than 50% of total aid in Ukraine and the rumored upcoming offensive, it leaves a large gap between what may be needed in Ukraine versus what is there. This is because 75 billion – 46.6 billion is in direct military aid, this is according to the Council on Foreign Relations. In the best case, this means 75% of the US military aid that is promised is in the country, much of which has already been consumed by the war already.

Why the delay?

There are several reasons for the delay in Congress approving monies for Ukraine and the equipment reaching the front. The most critical is much of the aid is yet to be manufactured – it takes a lot of time to gear up the production of military-specific things like ammunition from peace-time. Reporting over the last month in the US has gone into some of the munitions factories as they are gearing up to make more rounds; in particular, the focus was artillery rounds as they have played an outsized part in the war so far.

The other factors include the complex logistics involved in getting military aid to Ukraine and getting all international partners to agree to military support for Ukraine. Additionally, much of the advanced military equipment requires months of training, and the US has to train the Ukrainian army before the deliveries even make sense.

Dozens of other countries, including most members of NATO, are also providing aid; however, they are facing similar challenges as the US with raising production and deliveries. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland have all promised more direct military aid as a gross share of GDP than the US. The total dollar value of military aid from the US (46.6B) far exceeds all other countries combined, with the UK giving the second most military aid (5.1B).

What equipment is the US sending?

The bulk of equipment so far is anti-armor and anti-air defensive systems. The HIMARS has been a particularly effective tool for Ukraine to take out forward Russian artillery positions. Other notable weapons include 8,500 javelin systems, 1 Patriot missile defense system, and 8 NASAM systems.

Each wave of promised aid has also seen increasing orders of several types of military drones, including over 2,500 loitering munition-style drones – for example, the Switchblade series. This suggests drones are becoming highly effective in Ukraine as the frontline asks for more, and the US sends different drones in each shipment.