WASHINGTON — A doubtlessly $300 million batch of support finally sure for Ukraine will embrace communications methods and comparable gear, based on the Division of Protection.
“There’s a fairly intensive, detailed record of what a few of these capabilities are, together with unmanned aerial methods and a few tactical safe communications and different like capabilities,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said at an April 4 briefing.
Kirby didn’t provide additional specifics in regards to the gear.
Communications and connectivity have been besieged in Ukraine, as Russia continues to assail the Jap European nation. The telecommunications trade, particularly, has turn into a main goal for hackers, based on its authorities.
“The enemy’s assaults in opposition to the telecom trade happen each day,” Yurii Shchyhol, the pinnacle of the State Service of Particular Communication and Info Safety of Ukraine, mentioned in an interview publicized this week.
For the reason that begin of the struggle, Ukrainian officers have noticed and logged a flood of cyberattacks on its methods. Most, nonetheless, have confirmed unsuccessful and “don’t have an effect on the work of vital info infrastructure,” the state service mentioned in a press release.
Kirby on March 22 informed reporters the “Ukrainians nonetheless have good command and management over their forces within the discipline” regardless of Russian efforts to harass and disrupt.
The Protection Division notified Congress of its newest support plans — made potential by the Ukraine Safety Help Initiative, a years-old mechanism — on April 1. Additionally included within the upcoming bundle are evening imaginative and prescient gadgets and optics, medical provides, industrial satellite tv for pc imagery companies, ammunition and machine weapons.
“This, after all, underscores our unwavering dedication to Ukraine’s sovereignty and their territorial integrity in help of their efforts to repel the Russian forces inside their nation,” Kirby mentioned April 4.
As an alternative of siphoning the gear and provides immediately from U.S. stockpiles, the Protection Division will work with the personal sector to meet orders.
“Not like presidential drawdown, USAI is an authority underneath which america procures capabilities from trade relatively than delivering gear that’s drawn down from our personal shares,” Kirby mentioned. “That’s the distinction right here. So, this announcement represents the start of a contracting course of that can present these new capabilities.”
Neither procurement nor supply dates have been instantly accessible. However, Kirby emphasised, “we’re going to be shifting as quick as we will.”
The U.S. has supplied greater than $2 billion in safety help to Ukraine because the onset of the Biden administration.
Colin Demarest is a reporter at C4ISRNET, the place he covers networks and IT. Colin beforehand coated the Division of Vitality and its Nationwide Nuclear Safety Administration — particularly nuclear weapons improvement and Chilly Warfare cleanup — for a each day newspaper in South Carolina.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2022/04/05/us-sending-ukraine-tactical-communications-gear-in-new-300m-package/