The latest package of security assistance from the United States to Ukraine is valued USD 425 million, and it is divided between two programs: the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) takes $125 mln, and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) takes the other $300 mln.
This will be the last provision in the USAI part because the Pentagon has run out of money allocated for this purpose by the US Congress. Unless the government approves additional financing, the program will remain frozen.
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As for the PDA part which is the fastest in terms of delivery time, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, this new package includes:
- additional missiles for NASAMS air defense systems;
- additional rockets for HIMARS launchers, 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;
- TOW missiles, FGM-148 Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems;
- >3 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades, explosives, M18A1 Claymore landmines;
- 12 trucks to transport heavy equipment;
- cold weather gear, spare parts, maintenance, and other field equipment.
The larger portion of the aid provision comes under the USAI program, when the materiel is ordered from local manufacturers, which in turn means the money rests within the US. All of the $300 mln in this package go for "Additional laser-guided munitions to counter Unmanned Aerial Systems." Most probably, this refers to the APKWS guided rockets deployed byL3Harris Vampire truck-mounted anti-air system.
In general, US parliamentary reports say a total of 18 billion dollars were granted for the USAI program. At the same time, an equivalent of 25.93 billion dollars were spent via PDA in terms of donated equipment plus delivery and other expenses.
If we look into the US Congress report from October 5 regarding aid to Ukraine, we'll find out that as by the end of September, the expenses under the "presidential withdrawal" program had amounted to 24.735 billion dollars, which were distributed as follows:
In October, two more Presidential Drawdowns valued at $200 mln on October 11 and at $150 mln on October 26 were approved. In summary, as of November 4, we have 25.085 out of 25.93 billion dollars used, and the remaining balance should then be 845 million dollars.
However, the report from the Congress also mentions:
"Recently, the PDA packages underwent a revaluation, which restored $6.2 billion that the State Department said may be used to fulfill future PDA packages. On October 3, 2023, DOD confirmed that $5.4 billion remained available in PDA authority."
For a reminder, the reason for the revaluation opening up to $6.2 billion was the mistake when the value of equipment drawn from the stocks through the PDA program was estimated according to the cost of replenishment rather than its book value at the moment of transfer.
That is, the real balance under PDA is not $0.845 but $5 billion dollars, which is 20% of the amount allocated for the entire time of this program. Moreover, the weapons provided this way arrive from the U.S. Army warehouses to the Ukrainian Armed Forces with minimal delay.
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