U.S. weighs Stryker vehicles in Ukraine aid package set for Friday

WASHINGTON — The United States plans to send about 100 Stryker armored vehicles to Ukraine as part of a new package of military aid worth about $2.5 billion, adding another more powerful weapons system that it had previously withheld, people familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. was poised to unveil a new aid package as part of a broader announcement by Western allies of new hardware for Ukraine that’s set for Friday, when defense ministers meet at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

The people added that the plans remain incomplete and could change.

Spokespeople at the State and Defense Department declined to comment. Politico reported earlier that the U.S. is likely to include Strykers, which are built by a division of General Dynamics Corp. would come from U.S. inventories.

“I won’t get ahead of announcements,” John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters in Washington Wednesday. “But you can imagine that every time there’s a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, there are announcements by many of the countries that attend in terms of what they are willing to contribute.”

The U.S. Army says in an online description that there are 18 variants of the Stryker, including an “anti-tank guided missile” vehicle and personnel carriers. “Stryker vehicles provide the warfighter with a reliable, combat-tested platform that includes significant survivability and capability enhancements since the original fielding in 2002,” according to the Army.

The U.S. isn’t expected to provide its main battle tank, the M1 Abrams, given its heavy demands for fuel and maintenance.

“The Abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment,” Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday. “It’s expensive, it’s hard to train on. It has a jet engine. I think it’s about 3 gallons to the mile of jet fuel. It is not the easiest system to maintain. It may or may not be the right system.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Tuesday that he was in talks with allies over potentially supplying German-made Leopard tanks.

But Germany won’t provide its Leopard tanks — or allow other countries to send them — unless the U.S. agrees to send the Abrams, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior German officials it didn’t name.

“We believe that the provision of modern tanks will significantly help and improve the Ukrainians’ ability to fight where they’re fighting now and fight more effectively going forward,” Kirby said, without suggesting the U.S. will relent on its resistance to sending its Abrams tanks.

Earlier Wednesday, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his country is working to persuade European allies to send as many as 100 battle tanks to support Ukraine’s defense efforts against the Russian invasion that began last Feb. 24. Ukraine has said it needs the tanks now that it’s seeking to push Russian forces from territory they seized.

Bloomberg staff writer Tony Capaccio contributed to this story.