The U.S. included 100 killer drones in a colossal weapons package for Ukraine that President Joe Biden approved earlier this month, U.S. officials confirmed Wednesday.
Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of Defense for international security affairs, told lawmakers that Kyiv asked for the weapons, which are dubbed “kamikaze drones,” as it fights off a Russian invasion. “We have committed 100 Switchblade tactical unmanned aerial systems to be delivered in the most recent package of presidential drawdown,”
Wallander said in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, said in a House Armed Services Committee hearing that the drones were part of the $800 million in military assistance that President Biden announced earlier this month.
Wallander didn’t say which version of the Switchblade was being sent to Ukraine. “We have committed 100 Switchblade tactical unmanned aerial systems to be delivered in the most recent package of presidential drawdown,” Wallander said.
A fact sheet of the weapons package, which Biden announced on March 16 following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s virtual address to Congress, said that Ukraine would be getting “100 tactical unmanned aerial systems” that the White House described in a fact sheet about the drones.
