A group of bipartisan senators is urging the Biden administration to provide Ukraine with advanced MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones that would give Kyiv longer-range capability.
The Biden administration has been hesitant to send the drones due to the risk of escalation with Russia and concerns that the sensitive technology in the drones could end up in the wrong hands.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Biden administration has decided not to provide the drones, although other reporting disputed that claim and said a final decision hadn’t been made.
In a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, 16 senators expressed “concern” over the reports that said the administration has declined to send the MQ-1C. The senators asked the administration to give “careful reconsideration” to the Ukrainian request.
The letter was led by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and was signed by many members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, including ranking member James Inhofe (R-OK). The senators said the MQ-1C and other long-range capabilities would provide “Ukraine additional lethality needed to eject Russian forces and regain occupied territory.”
Providing MQ-1Cs would be a major escalation in US military aid to Kyiv as the drones can be armed with powerful hellfire missiles and can fly for up to 30 hours. The drones would give Ukraine the capability to strike targets inside Russian territory. The US has provided other long-range arms under the condition they wouldn’t be used to target Russian territory, with the exception of Crimea.
Officials told CNN last week that the US was considering modifying the MQ-1Cs to change the technology of some components so it wouldn’t pose as much of a risk if they end up in Russia’s hands. The report said the effort was being led by the US Army, but any modifications would take time.
Russia attacks on civilians targets does not play well in the US. Those attacks make it easier to sell sending billions of dollars worth of equipment to Ukraine.
They have hit a nuclear plant so if us gives them longer range drones I doubt it very much us can fully control Ukrainian targeting by the said drones. Ukraine has already hit targets in Russia proper so they will very likely use those drones to hit Russia.
Well, Tit for Tat.
War is a two way street.
We need this war to be within Ukraine escalation with a nuclear power benefits no one
You fool. The reason the US won’t send weaponry that can reach Russia is so Russia doesn’t respond with strikes against American assets. They don’t give two sh*ts about Ukrainian lives. They’re fodder to “weaken” Russia which the US has openly stated.
Please remember that this war started because the Ukrainian Nazis who came to power in an American backed coup decided to not respect multiple ceasefire agreements and shell the heck out of civilian targets in the Donbass for years -tens of thousands dead – but the dead are ethnic Russians so it’s totally alright with Americans right?
No, This war started because Putin bribed with billions Yanukovich to make him cancel the highly supported economic agreement between the EU and Ukraine.
And your shelling of civilians story is BS
So telling. Yes, how dare the elected president of the Ukraine choose a policy different from the one that some Ukrainians “highly supported” and others (the ones who elected him, for the most part) highly opposed. Surely, if a president does such a thing, the other party, with the help of the USA, has every right to overthrow him!
And the shelling of the Donbass civilians is not only well documented, but was bragged about by the Kiev regime.
Ahem, you ignore the deal Russia offered, one that was more favorable to Ukraine interests from an economic standpoint, $15 billion better. Then came the coup of 2014, set up and financed by the “rules based” U.S. of A. Actually, you do know that, don’t you?
You lie, once again. The vote to go with the EU was split in the same fashion as the vote that elected Yanukovich.
Western Ukraine wanted to become european by a large percentage while Eastern Ukraine did not.
The truth is that in the short term at least, the Russian deal was a much better one when it came to financing and the price of gas.
Americans didn’t like the deal, so they did what America always does – they saw to it that the impediment was removed. Just another of an endless series of coups encouraged or outright executed by the USA.
“Russia attacks on civilians targets does not play well in the US.”
Yes. Only attacks on civilians by the US plays well here. Recall the Afghanistan withdrawal. No outcry for those poor bastards turned into pink mist by Biden’s “righteous” drone strike but never-ending cries for the 13 Marines that got killed.
The Russian attacks are on dual use infrastruture, not “civilian targets.”
Pretty bent. The financing of the war is an option Americans chose before the first shots were fired. Try to keep up.
Hawks hawks everywhere, our government is filled with neocon cancer.
At least we know that the push for a cataclysmic war with Russia is a bipartisan enterprise. Do you really think it’s the “neocons” that motivate 50 million US Christian Zionists to pray for WWIII to happen so they can be “raptured” up to Heaven while the rest of us are turned to cinder cakes?
Neo cons, neo libs, old fashioned hawks, new fashioned hawks, Dems and Repubs (11 Repubs signed the letter, five Dems, by the way, for those who think the Repubs are the “peace party”), Christian Zionists and atheist liberals. The war party is large and strong and diverse.
One of the largest and most influential voting blocks in the USA are so-called “Christian” Zionists, 50 million strong according to Paster John Hagee. They make the “war party” not just about money and power, but a dangerous almost suicidal death cult that will ultimately push the USA into a catastrophic war with Russia.
“What’s underreported is the massive size [50 million] of the Christian Zionist voting bloc and how much Trump is relying on it as a prospect to retake the White House,” says Stefanie Fox, the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action (JVP Action), October 5, 2020
That must be why Pompeo lost all that weight. I hear you go up buck naked.
Russia decimated Ukraine’s Air Force in just a few days. So, I imagine that Russia would view these $32 million drones much like gold plated clay pigeons.
Yes, one suspects this is the real reason for the Biden decision not to send.
“The letter was led by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and was signed by many
members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, including ranking member
James Inhofe (R-OK).”
Now I am glad that Congress is split between the only two parties in American politics. Both parties are full of disgusting Kleptocrats who would rather wage war and skim funds from the MIC than wage peace.
Once again I am sorry that I voted in the recent sham elections in America. Those of us that want negotiations on the Ukraine issue are not heard by Congress.
100% in support. Let’s help them make Russia re-think next time they go for more land grabbing anywhere else.
The way I see it, either Russia gets out or be prepared to have many more troops buried in Ukraine.
If i were Ukranian, not even Zelensky could stop me from fighting for every inch of my land even knowing death is highly likely. You dont care about death when fighting for your children and future of your country.
You don’t have to be Ukrainian.
It helps though if what you want is to fight for fight ‘for every inch of my land‘.
The exception of Crimea has already resulted in a Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol’s Russian navy base and Russian retaliation by the destruction of Ukraine’s power net. When will Biden learn that the Russians are better chess players than he is?
Made in the USA
Names of the 16 slimeballs, please.