Speaking at a press conference today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK will send a further £100m of lethal aid to Ukraine, including more anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank missiles and loitering munitions.

“Today I can announce the UK will send a further £100m worth of high-grade military equipment to Ukraine’s armed forces including more star streak anti-aircraft missiles which fly at three times the speed of sound, another 800 anti-tank missiles and precision munitions capable to lingering in the sky until directed to their target,” he said.

“We will also send more helmets, night vision and body armour on top of the 200,000 pieces of non-lethal military equipment the UK has already dispatched. But Olaf and I agree that our two countries, and our allies must go further and provide more help to Ukraine.”

Earlier today I reported that Britain will be sending an unspecified number of Mastiff heavily armoured vehicles to Ukraine, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has confirmed.

Britain sending Mastiff armoured vehicles to Ukraine

It is understood that the vehicles will be stripped of sensitive equipment with British troops sent to a country neighbouring Ukraine to provide training.

What’s happening on the ground?

Russian forces have now fully withdrawn from northern Ukraine say the British Ministry of Defence in an intelligence update. The intelligence update advises that some of these forces will be transferred to the east to fight in Donbas.

The forces will require replenishment before being deployed further east, with any mass redeployment from the north likely to take at least a week, the ministry added.

The latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine reads as follows.

  1. In the north, Russian forces have now fully withdrawn from Ukraine to Belarus and Russia. At least some of these forces will be transferred to East Ukraine to fight in the Donbas.
  2. Many of these forces will require significant replenishment before being ready to deploy further east, with any mass redeployment from the north likely to take at least a week minimum.
  3. Russian shelling of cities in the east and south continues and Russian forces have advanced further south from the strategically important city of Izium which remains under their control.

 

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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90 COMMENTS

      • Will you receive money from Ukraine to send your equipment later? Or is this money a small amount for your country? How about other countries

      • One interpretaion is “spaced out” :-).

        An alternative for a really excellent press conference – with Boris being kept in his toybox and not posturing or offending – is that somebody had a remote torture device on his testicles to enforce this. Since he never looks more than 9″*cosine(45 degrees) in front of his pelvis, this is probably the correct one.

        If BJ had spent the last 2 years giving press conferences of this quality we would be a hell of a lot further forward.

  2. “and precision munitions capable to lingering in the sky until directed to their target,”

    What? Switchblade? Is it even in service yet apart from unspecified numbers of the smaller type with DSF?

    • It’s been quietly in service for a couple of years, it was first used by the US to take out Irans Soleimani the first acknowledgement that such a weapon existed. It was primarily designed for use by US Special forces. It seems to me that Boris’s annocement is a tacit admittance that the UK have purchased a number of switchblade unless we have built our own.

      • Switchblade 300 has been in US service for a while, but until this year no Switchblade 600 had completed serial production and it looks like the early deliveries are being diverted to Ukraine so they will operate the 600 before it enters US service.

      • Can you pls provide a link regarding a Switchblade being used to take out Soleimani. From everything I’ve read it was a UAV like the Reaper with a variant of the Hellfire missile. I doubt the SB 300 would have been used as it only has a very small warhead and would be no guarantee of a kill of someone in a vehicle. And the larger SB wasn’t even in production back then. Thank you.

      • Which Switchblade type knowing Boris he’d have gone for the smaller 300 version good for Snatch Land rovers or Lollipop Ladies but not Tanks, that’s more of the 600 target Mark

      • US took out Soleminai with 2 Hellfires into each car. There were two cars. They wanted to make sure they got the job done. These only have a small range they have had to been pretty close to take him out with this system.

    • Could be buying on the Ukrainians behalf but yesterday they said they were offering weapons that had been trialed but not yet accepted into British service. A small number of Switchblade were ordered by the UK last year and thats the most likely. Its unlikely to be the under development Alvina drone swarm as that would likely be too sensitive to send.

  3. What happened to the Fireshadow loitering munitions? I thought an initial order had been procured and delivered before it was effectively cancelled. Could it be these?

      • What an idiotic act that was getting rid of a weapon system far superior to anything else currently on the market, the idiots who cancelled that because they believed that there would be no practical use for it, should be brought to task. Saying that kind of sums up the entire British MOD procurement strategy. 

        • Probably stored?

          As it would be stable for storing.

          It is very expensive disposing of live munitions abs MOD has plenty of storage capacity.

  5. From reading many reports it seems that as well as air defence and anti tank we need to supply something to Ukraine to take out artillery from distance, what does the UK Army have ? locating radar? and counter battery artillery? do we have anything which isn’t about to go out of service or long in the tooth like much of the Army’s equipment..

    • AB wrote:
      From reading many reports it seems that as well as air defence and anti tank we need to supply something to Ukraine

      Not the answer you were looking for, but the Slovaks have handed over a S300

    • The CB radar capability of the British Army is lacking. Just a handful of systems I believe, certainly too few ourselves to be giving them away.

  6. With a range of around six miles, this should keep their soldiers safe from counterattacks.

    5 April 2022

    “The Pentagon plans to order and send to Ukraine 10 of the newest model Switchblade drones armed with tank-busting warheads in addition to previously announced deliveries of a less powerful version, according to two people familiar with the decision.

    The new Switchblade-600 weapons are part of $300 million in lethal military assistance announced by the Pentagon Friday night that will be contracted directly from industry instead of drawn from existing stocks, according to the people, who asked not to identified discussing the plan.
     
    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday confirmed the tank-killing drones are part of the weaponry being sent to Ukraine.” 

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-04/u-s-switchblade-drones-for-ukraine-will-include-tank-killers

    • The Switchblade 300 is anti-personnel. It’s the newer, longer range (25 Mi+) Switchblade 600 that has the Javelin warhead. At $70,000 the Switchblade 600 is cheaper than a Javelin to boot ($200,000). It’s a safe bet to say both production facilities are getting busier.

  7. Loitering munitions? Interesting as we are lacking on that front ourselves. But, in a harsh way Ukraine can be a testing ground for tech and for coming up with operating procedures.

  8. Thank you U.K. for helping UK.
    “How comely it is and how reviving, to the spirits of just men long oppressed, when God into the hands of their deliverers, puts invincible might . . .”

  9. Pardon my ignorance 🤷‍♂️ but I just don’t get it why we have to spell out in precise “shopping list” detail to the whole world what we are sending? ! FCS shut up and do it on the quiet!!! Ukraine needs all the military advantages it can get. Tell the world afterwards if you have too!!
    Side note: Now well the hell is that Harpoon(?) coastal AShM battery at?? Lol. Hope it’s ready for action soon as.

    • Political grandstanding of the “we are sending more than you” rubbish as the EU also highlights how “leading” it is.

      I agree, hopefully much is kept quiet.

      • I’d have to disagree for once.
        If the political grandstanding of who is sending the most results in nations giving the Ukraine even more arms and material then that’s good news. I don’t care why equipment and munitions are given, just that as much is given as possible.
        TBH quite frankly most nations could and should be giving a hell of a lot more than they are.

        As for secrecy, I’m sure the military establishment in each donor nation is advising its politicians what aid can be publicly named, and which should not.

        (Personally if I were a Russian tanker, I’d be applying for a transfer to the infantry given the number of anti-tank weapons sent by NATO.)

    • It’s a bit of a double edge sword. Russia knowing the weapons are piling in may alter their calculations. Perhaps there recent retreat and regroup was influenced by the knowledge that Ukraine remains a well armed fighting force. Perhaps even saying we’ve sent something when we haven’t could save lives. To be honest the whole information and disinformation game needs to be carefully managed.

    • From HMG web site dated June 2021
      “Contractual work will now begin to implement the following projects:

      • Missile sale and integration on new and in-service Ukrainian Navy patrol and airborne platforms, including a training and engineering support package.
      • The development and joint production of eight fast missile warships”

      I think the concept was to put Sea Spear (Brimstone) launchers on the new build
      patrol boats. Maybe we are trying to something along these lines. Fit them to Sabre and Scimitar perhaps and put them on low loaders to Odessa?
      An alternative might be to integrate Sea Venom onto their Mi-24 helicopters; whichever is quickest.
      I think upgraded Storm Shadow has an image / IR seeker….I’m sure we could fit a land launcher onto a Mastiff. We are spoiled for choice 😂

      • In a months time Ukraine is unlikely to have a coastline. (And the Uk will lose all those lucrative Naval contracts) We can keep piling in the weapons and making life difficult for the Russians but the reality is they have hammered the Ukrainian military and will continue to do hammer then. The core of the Ukrainian army is about to get trapped and destroyed in the Donbas. Once that happens it’s game over.

        The time to show statesmanship was 2 months ago before the fighting started. If the Yanks and NATO had had the balls to put fighters in the Ukrainian skies and told the Russians they would guarantee the Ukrainian airspace – Putin would have had to invade knowing he was fighting NATO. He would not have done so.

        That moment has gone and all we are doing is delaying the inevitable.

        • Douglas, the battle for the Donbas hasn’t even begun and you are fore saying like a true soothsayer that the Ukrainian army are going to be encircled and destroyed. I think that might very well be Russia’s intent, but they have not delivered that plan. Seems to me that the Ukrainian army are doing a fine job ruining Russia’s army plans thus far.
          A plan only survives as long as contact with the enemy, then battlefield leadership, aggression, firepower, accuracy, are the deciding factors. Seems to me the Ukrainian military will be well versed in what Russia’s army plan to do and will have some nasty surprises of their own.

    • Couldn’t agree more! The world doesn’t need to know whats being shipped to Ukraine. Poland made a huge mistake by insisting the US hand over their Mig 29s. Just ship them on the QT! Not sure where Bojo is going to get anti-ship missiles? Presumably the RN’s only existing stocks of Harpoon? Fine, just ensure you fund new anti-ship missiles for the RN…….

    • Agree Quentin, BoJo’s in Kyiv outlining in precise detail the precise numbers of pieces of equipment we are gifting to the Ukrainians, helps the Russian intelligence service no doubt to know what the Ukrainians will be fielding and in what quantity.
      Its all for BoJo’s international statesmen image he is trying to portray, meanwhile at home the sleeze, corruption and dodgy dealings no doubt continue in Tory Britain.

  10. Is Ukraine able to hit or disrupt any of these withdrawing Russian forces? Don’t want them to get away and too out of sight only to regroup in strength. There does seem to be a lot of “eyes” on Russia’s moves which is a good thing and we do hope the Ukrainian’s can push the buggers back over the fence and keep a watch for what Russian nasties might come next.

      • Fastest they’ve moved isn’t it, getting away from the fighting which is hardest. So change of plan, pretend we never wanted to do anything other than control the south! Move the remaining forces south, to try to reorg after serious losses, backfill the even shittier conscripts and kit arriving and hope we get some sort of victory in the south before Nazi day on the 9th May! Good assessment? Yes i thought so as well. Anyway, obvious question which I’ve asked many times, any condemnation of Putins illegal invasion of Ukraine?

    • I think the video shared of a single Ukrainian tank taking on a retreating Russian convoy shows they did hit them when they could.

  11. The Ukrainians are constantly asking for tanks. Is there any reason why we couldn’t send them some of the Challenger 2’s that are not being upgraded?

    • Because its not just the tank you have to send , its the experience /training to operate it the technical , logistical and engineering support . Different ammo etc etc …just not worthwhile for such small numbers .

      • Problem is Ukraine are six weeks in and this is going to drag on. At some point all the old Russian kit in the west us going to be used up or no longer serviceable. The west will need to supply its own kit at some point, they then need to go through weeks of training leaving Ukraine with a capability gap. Better to commit now and start the process. But Challenger 2 is not the right tank, to few and wrong ammo.

    • I would leave tank donating to Poland, Slovakia, Romania, all of which have reasonably large numbers of T72/80 series tanks they could donate to the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainians need tanks they can get into and be familiar with, not new types of fighting vehicles needing months of training to become battlefield ready.
      So Chally 2 is out, besides I am still hopeful we will retain all the Chally 2’s in store in case they ever need upgrading to Chally 3 standard. eg generalised war with Russia or China

  12. Each donor nation is listing what they are willing to own up to. I very much doubt that this is the extent of their contribution. I’m sure other weapons are going to Ukraine that we will never know about. Of course the western contribution is even bigger than just equipment. Western ISTAR assets and intelligence sharing must be huge because from what I’ve seen more or less every Russian movement seems to be no surprise to the Ukrainians. On top of that we must now have extensive training facilities in bordering NATO countries through which Ukrainian forces are being processed at scale and speed. Lastly I would confidently surmise that just about every western SFs unit is now having a field day in Ukraine. I just wish we could get those Polish Migs in theatre; it can’t be beyond the wit of our people to get them to Ukraine with plausible deniability? I also reckon that a few GMLRS or HIMARS would transform things for the Ukrainians.

    • We should just send them & stop giving Putin carte blanch to deploy whatever he wants while limiting Ukraines’ arsenals to defend themselves. Enough of the fence sitting semantics that’s enabled Russian atrocities.

  13. Still talk of AShM’s and especially Harpoon.

    As they talk about “New” I wonder if it is Harpoon or maybe Martlet?

    • The Martlet LMM missile is intended to target small light fast attack craft. You can fire it from the Starstreak launcher. I think you might use it against landing craft.
      Wouldn’t we need US agreement to send Harpoon?

    • I wonder if the missles could be the ones that were intended for the Ukrainian P-50u boat we were planning to build and help them make.

      • What land based anti-ship missiles do we have?

        As to counter battery radar have the UkrMil not captured such items from the Russians?

        Is this a long term war? If so, why not bring Ukrainian Navy over now and reactivate and transfer the two T23s we were going to add to the Greek navy? That would ruin the Russian day, especially in the North Sea freight transit routes.

  14. Great helping our Ukraine friend’s out but do worry were leaving our guys short ,or have ram up our Arms production ?

  15. boJos in Kyiv donating even more military hardware to Ukraine, its the right thing to do but anyone else worried that our cupboards are going to be running empty soon?
    NLAW need to be replaced, Javelin replaced, starstreak replaced. Then skysabre (landceptor) needs to be massed produced. A real sense of urgency is needed but I’m just not getting that vibe from HMG, seems to be business as usual.
    Would love to see some big orders coming out, similar to Germany’s response to the Ukraine war, So tranche 4 Eurofighters for RAF (36 aircraft), firm commitment for at least another 24 F35Bs, 5 type 32 frigates and ideally a follow-on batch of astutes to take our SSN fleet back above 10 in service.
    Our armed forces really are hollowed out.
    The war in Ukraine has also reinforced the need for Trophy APS, to be fitted to all frontline armoured vehicles within the British army- not sure how expensive Trophy APS system is, but as Israeli army has it widely fitted I cannot help but think the 60 units promised for Chally 3 is very miserly and frankly laughable.
    Drones, loitering submunitions are the clear winners in Ukraine easily able to defeat Russian army units, not sure they would be so effective against skysabre equipped British units or those fitted with Trophy systems.

    • The company producing NLAW is hiring new staff for more orders so it seems that is happening. The announcement of 100 more Boxers is due to the donation of 120 Mastiffs. I think we can assume the rest is being dealt with too.

      We originally ordered 20,000 NLAW and it seems we have donated between 6,000 and 8,000 depending on the source of information.

  16. I see Reuters are reporting that if the German Army were to donate 100 SP Howitzers to UK then krauss Meffei Wegmann would replace them with new ones. There is no comment if this is a donation or sale and I assume it to be the PzH 2000. Obviously would be a big bonus if they can hit back at Russian gun positions, but I wonder how many gunners the Ukrainians have that have SP knowledge, even then I’d say they might need a minimum 2 week conversion course.

  17. The Slovakian S-300 system doesn’t seem to have lasted very long, no doubt tracked all the way by the Russians and attacked when it got to a military site.

    “MOSCOW, 11 April. /TASS/. The RF Armed Forces, using Kalibr high-precision sea-based missiles, destroyed equipment of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile battalion, delivered from Europe, hidden in the hangar. This was announced to journalists on Monday by the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov.

    “On Sunday, April 10, Kalibr high-precision sea-based missiles on the southern outskirts of the city of Dnipro destroyed equipment of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile division, which was supplied to the Kiev regime of one of the European countries, hidden in a hangar,” Konashenkov said.

    According to a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, four S-300 launchers and up to 25 personnel of the Ukrainian armed forces were hit as a result.”

    • Then all we do is send more and more! Thats the good thing about NATO, vastly superior in every way to the Russkie people and kit. Your mate Putin is proper shown the way how not to fight a war. I see your Putin supporting and invasion supporting comments have dried up, certainly since the Russkies are getting handed there arses, but most definitely since it turns out your Russians are making the German ss look quite chilled. An incompetent Russian Army of rapist, murderers, torturers and thieves….aaaaaaah you must be so proud. And, once again, any condemnation of Putins illegal invasion of Ukraine?

    • So you believe the Kremlin’s lies again!
      Especially after you believed them that they would Not invade Ukraine!

  19. How dead as a dodo is Fire Shadow? Could development be restarted and maybe a lightweight version added too or is it just a case of “sod it, we’re too far behind now, just buy what’s out there”?

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