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The United States will send 120mm depleted-uranium tank munitions to Ukraine for the first time, as part of a new US$175 million military aid package.
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The US Department of Defense announced the additional security assistance to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defence needs in a statement on 6 September.
This package also includes additional air defence equipment, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems ammunition, 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, 81mm mortars systems and rounds, TOW guided missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-armour systems, tactical air navigation systems, tactical secure communications systems, demolitions munitions, and more than 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition.
Depleted-uranium rounds were originally developed by the US in the 1970s alongside DU tank armour, bullets, and mortar shells.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said DU “kinetic energy penetrators” have a high density and self-ignition properties as well as “adiabatic shearing”, in which they become sharper while penetrating armour plating.
“On impact with targets, DU penetrators ignite, breaking up in fragments, and forming an aerosol of particles. These fine dust particles can catch fire spontaneously in air. Small pieces may ignite in a fire and burn, but tests have shown that large pieces, like the penetrators used in anti-tank weapons, or in aircraft balance weights, will not normally ignite in a fire,” the agency said.
“The existence of depleted-uranium residues dispersed in the environment does not pose a radiological hazard to the population of the affected regions.”
It’s expected the rounds will be used in 31 M1 Abrams main battle tanks that have been pledged to Ukraine by the US, the first of which are expected to arrive in Ukraine this month.
Ukraine already has access to similar depleted-uranium rounds provided by the United Kingdom to arm Challenger 2 main battle tanks.
Access to depleted-uranium munitions for Ukraine comes after the recent US government decision to supply cluster munitions to the war-torn country earlier this year. Cluster munitions have been banned by more than 100 countries internationally due to their unexploded ordnance “dud rate” and future impact on civilians after a conflict.
The United States has committed more than $43.7 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration.
