The Pentagon on Tuesday quietly announced the latest security assistance package to support Ukraine's operations against Russia but buried the lead in the amount of small arms ammunition that has been provided. 

This week's package, valued at up to $500 million, was simply listed as including "additional armored vehicles, antiarmor systems and critical munitions for U.S.-provided Patriot air defense systems and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, among other items." The latest round of assistance is the 41st drawdown of equipment from U.S. military inventories for Ukraine since August 2021 and tops more than $40.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine from the Biden administration since February 2022.

A three-page fact sheet included with the June 27 package that tallies the total U.S. military assistance to Ukraine over the past 16 months now stands at "over 300 million rounds of small arms ammunition," a figure up from 200 million noted just two months ago and a benchmark of 104 million seen as recently as late November 2022.

The figure includes both small arms ammunition, which is classified as calibers .50 cal BMG and smaller, as well as 40mm grenades. 

Banner image: U.S. Air Force airmen assigned to the 721st Aerial Port Squadron load pallets of ammunition on a 60K Tunner to be transferred to a C-130 Hercules on Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Aug. 7, 2022. (Photo: Capt. Emma Quirk/USAF)