Pentagon Redirects Critical Antidrone Tech from Ukraine

The Trump administration is redirecting a key antidrone technology earmarked for Ukraine to American forces, a move that reflects the Pentagon’s waning commitment to Kyiv’s defense.

The Pentagon quietly notified Congress last week that special fuzes for rockets that Ukraine uses to shoot down Russian drones are now being allocated to U.S. Air Force units in the Middle East.

The move comes as President Trump said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him in a phone call that Moscow would have to respond forcefully to recent Ukrainian attacks, dampening the prospects for a halt in the war that began in early 2022.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth skipped a meeting Wednesday at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters with European defense ministers on coordinating military aid to Ukraine.

Hegseth has warned that European allies must provide the overwhelming share of future military assistance to Kyiv while casting the western Pacific as the Pentagon’s “priority theater.”

The defense chief went further in an internal memo last month. In it, he authorized the Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell, a Pentagon office that ensures commanders’ weapons needs are met, to provide the fuzes to the U.S. Air Force, even though they were initially bought for Ukraine.

The Pentagon told the Senate Armed Services Committee in the previously undisclosed message that the U.S. military’s need for the fuzes was a “Secretary of Defense Identified Urgent Issue.”

The decision to redirect the component illustrates the scarcity of crucial defense items as Ukraine steels itself for more Russian drone and missile attacks, while U.S. Air Force units in the Middle East prepare for a possible conflict with Iran or renewed fighting with Houthi militants in Yemen.

Supporters of the move say the Pentagon has the flexibility to take such an action under the emergency military-spending bill passed last year. But the move had prompted concerns among Ukraine’s supporters in Congress, who say that the Pentagon hasn’t explained what effect the move would have on Ukrainian defenses or whether the Air Force need is urgent.

“This capability is urgent and vital to Ukraine’s layered air defense against Russian attacks,” said Celeste Wallander, who served as a senior Defense Department official during the Biden administration. “But there is also an urgent requirement to protect U.S. personnel and bases in the Middle East against Houthi and potentially Iranian drone attacks.”

The Biden administration arranged to send the fuzes along with numerous other weapons systems under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which authorized the spending of billions of dollars in U.S. government funds to buy weapons and components from American defense companies.

Though the funds for the program have been expended, deliveries are scheduled to reach Ukraine this year and next unless the Trump administration diverts more systems to fill the U.S. military’s inventories.

The Trump administration inherited the authority to send Ukraine as much as $3.85 billion in weapons from the Pentagon’s stocks but refrained from doing so. It hasn’t asked for more funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

The fuzes are intended for the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System. The U.S. has provided that technology to Ukraine for a couple of years, and the Ukrainians have used it in a ground-to-air rocket system for defending against Russian drones. The Pentagon has touted its effectiveness. A critical component is the “proximity fuze,” which detonates explosives when the rocket nears a drone.

The Air Force has adapted the rockets so that they can be fired by F-16s and F-15E jet fighters against drones. The system is cheaper than Sidewinder and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. A photo of an F-15E equipped with the rocket pods was recently posted by the U.S. Central Command.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is looking into ramping up production of components for the counterdrone system, including through the current reconciliation bill, said one congressional aide. He praised the Pentagon for promptly notifying lawmakers of its decision to redirect the fuzes so the Congress could take it into account in its budget deliberations.

But a Democratic congressional aide was critical. “Denying Ukraine desperately needed weapons at this critical point in the war is unthinkable,” he said. “Failing to explain the necessity of this move suggests that it may be punitive.”