The Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, announced that Australia will provide a further $100 million in military aid for Ukraine during a surprise visit to Western Ukrainian city of Lviv, following his attendance at Anzac Day ceremonies in Türkiye.
Of the $100 million allocated as part of the aid package half ($50 million) has been allocated to providing short-range air-defence systems (SHORAD) to the Ukrainian military. This includes “dozens of million dollars” worth of RBS-70 man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADS) according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
“Today’s visit of Richard Marles to Ukraine will have important results for our defence capacity,” Shmyhal said during a press conference in Lviv.
“Also, a large batch of man-portable air-defence systems – RBS-70 worth dozens of millions of dollars will be provided to Ukraine too.”
The Australian Army is in the process of retiring the RBS-70 and its associated Saab Giraffe ground-based air defence radars in favour of the longer-range enhanced National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (eNASAMS). It’s not clear how many RBS-70 systems Australia is sending to Ukraine as part of the package or if the package includes any of the Army’s three Saab radars.
It’s also unclear if the RBS-70 donation makes up the totality of the $50 million SHORAD commitment.
The broader package also includes $32.5 million dollars for purchasing drones through the so-called “Drone Coalition” which is led by Latvia and the United Kingdom as well as $15 million for various “high priority” equipment, including helmets, boots, generators, firefighting equipment, and rigid hull inflatable boats. According to the Department of Defence, this element of the package will be delivered with “the support of Australian defence industry”.
During his visit Marles also revealed publicly that Australia has been supplying unspecified precision air-to-ground munitions to Ukraine. “We're also able to announce today that we have been able to provide to Ukraine air to ground precision munitions,” Marles said.
While he didn’t go into detail of what kind of munitions Australia has provided to Ukraine, Ukraine has previously made use of Joint Direct Attack Munition–Extended Range (JDAM-ER) guided bombs, the wing kits for which are manufactured by Brisbane based Ferra Engineering.
“We understand this we will be an enduring conflict, and we will be contributing more in the future because we are determined to stand side-by-side with Ukraine for as long as it takes for Ukraine to prevail,” Marles added.