President Joe Biden’s administration awarded a $1.2 billion contract to Raytheon Technologies Co RTX for developing six National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) for Ukraine.
What Happened: The U.S. Army on Wednesday said the U.S. has approved sending Ukraine a total of eight NASAMS to fight Vladimir Putin's missiles and drone attacks.
Kyiv has long sought NASAMS and received its first delivery of two sophisticated air defense systems last month.
The military said others would be delivered in future months once they are built.
“NASAMS are just the latest in the diverse set of air-defense capabilities we are delivering to Ukraine,” said Bill LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.
The $1.2 billion contract of NASAMS systems is a part of the fifth Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package, which the government announced on Aug. 24 – and had a total value of $2.98 billion.
The Assistance Initiative funds allow the government to procure weapons from industry rather than taking them from existing U.S. weaponry stocks.
The newly U.S.-provided NASAMS air defense systems so far have had a 100% success rate in Ukraine intercepting missiles from Moscow, the Army added.
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