Ukrainian Armed Forces have initiated preliminary steps towards putting Javelin anti-tank missiles into service, General Viktor Muzhenko, chief of the General Staff, asserted on Jan. 17 during a NATO military committee meeting in Brussels.
“The arrangements for employment and operational service of such a weapon are already being made,” the general said, referring to the U.S.-produced anti-tank units.
“There is a consolidated viewpoint, the Javelin is the case. There is an appropriate receipt procedure, it is not as fast as we wish. For this, an appropriate expertise on inspection of Ukraine’s readiness to be given with such a weapon is needed.”
The top commander of Ukraine’s Armed Forces also added that issues of storage security for the Javelins, and the procedure of their handover to Ukraine from the United States, were being resolved.
“This is the weapon that is put into service by Ukraine’s army for increasing its potential as a mean of deterrence amid the standoff with Russian Federation,” Muzhenko told the UNIAN agency later in the day, adding that Javelin units may be supplied to Ukraine within two to six months.
As reported previously, Ukraine’s National Ground Forces Academy based in Lviv reported it launched on Jan. 15 English lessons for servicemen who would be sent abroad to receive training in the use of Javelins.
The Wall Street Journal on Nov. 9 reported that U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s administration greenlighted providing Ukraine with of the Javelins as part of the military aid to the country that has been waging war against Russian-led forces in the eastern region of Donbas since April 2014.
Later, on Dec. 24, the ABC channel said referring to its sources in the U.S. Department of State that the total defense package to Ukraine worth of $47 million would include 35 Javelin launchers and 210 missiles for them.
The reported decision of the White House followed months of speculations concerning whether the United States would eventually arm Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons, particularly with widely known Javelin units, apart from providing non-lethal military hardware such as medical vehicles and equipment. On Dec. 21, Trump also signed a U.S. defense appropriations bill for the fiscal year 2018 that particularly assigns $350 million military aid package to Ukraine.
Furthermore, on Jan. 17, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told the RBK-Ukraine news outlet that the White House did approve providing Ukraine with additional defensive capabilities, however, she never mentioned Javelins directly and added that details of the arms transfer were still being debated.
Besides, the weapons would be provided at no cost, bolstering commercial contracted weapons sales to Ukraine, Yovanovitch asserted.
The FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile units, produced by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, were initially put into service by the U.S. Armed Forces in 1996. Today, it is also operated by 19 countries, mainly by U.S. allies within NATO, in the Middle East and the Pacific. On Nov. 20, the U.S. Department of State also approved the sale of 410 missiles and 72 launch units to Georgia to the sum of $75 million.
The Javelin, being an advanced 3rd generation man-portable anti-tank missile, is widely known for its automatic infrared target guidance that frees its operator from the necessity to actively guide a projectile into a target via a laser ray or a wire after the shot, as distinguished from other less advanced 2nd generation systems.
The Javelin’s HEAT warhead is capable of defeating modern tanks by attacking them from above, and also can be used to destroy enemy fortifications.
