Tag: Mikoyan MiG-29

She’s a Doctor. He Was a Limo Driver. They Pitched a $30 Million Arms Deal.

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

She’s a Doctor. He Was a Limo Driver. They Pitched a $30 Million Arms Deal.

The Biden administration encourages private sector deals for several reasons. It saves the Pentagon from further depleting its own armory after months of sending arms to Ukraine. And private sellers can provide weapons that the government cannot — like the Soviet-style weapons* already used by Ukrainian soldiers.

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Whether the deal goes forward or not, the BMI documents show that the Ukraine war presents an opportunity to charge big prices. The bullets that Mr. Zlatev planned to sell were 50 percent more expensive than those publicly listed by other vendors. His grenade launchers were selling for more than twice what is listed on a price list for United Nations peacekeeping forces. Experts say these increases typically help pay the middlemen — at the expense of a nation in the middle of a war.

*Wonder if they’ll buy these?! 😉

US preparing to approve advanced long-range rocket system for Ukraine

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

US preparing to approve advanced long-range rocket system for Ukraine

Senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have pleaded in recent weeks for the US and its allies to provide the Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS. The US-made weapon systems can fire a barrage of rockets hundreds of kilometers — much farther than any of the systems Ukraine already has — which the Ukrainians argue could be a gamechanger in their war against Russia.

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The Biden administration waivered for weeks, however, on whether to send the systems, amid concerns raised within the National Security Council that Ukraine could use the systems to carry out offensive attacks inside Russia, officials said.

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The issue was at the top of the agenda at last week’s two meetings at the White House where deputy Cabinet members convened to discuss national security policy, officials said. At the heart of the matter was the same concern the administration has grappled with since the start of the war– whether sending increasingly heavy weaponry to Ukraine will be viewed by Russia as a provocation that could trigger some kind of retaliation against the US.

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Ukraine is already believed to have carried out numerous cross-border strikes inside Russia, which Ukrainian officials neither confirm nor deny. Russian officials have said publicly that any threat to their homeland would constitute a major escalation and have said that western countries are making themselves a legitimate target in the war by continuing to arm the Ukrainians.

Another major concern inside the Biden administration had been whether the US could afford to give away so many high-end weapons drawn from the military’s stockpiles, the sources said.

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