After participating in the war in Ukraine, Chris and many American veterans sought to buy modern equipment to move to this country, to fill the equipment gap.
Chris, a veteran of the US Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment, joined foreign volunteers in Ukraine three months ago. He took part in fierce colonial battles from Irpin, a suburb of Kiev, to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, southern Ukraine.
When he went to Ukraine, Chris had hoped to apply the real combat skills he had accumulated from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, including knowledge of night operations. However, the reality of the Ukrainian battlefield was far from his imagination. The Ukrainian units did not have the high-tech equipment needed to bring out Chris’ skills.
“In the US military, we are given modern equipment like night vision goggles or thermal imaging equipment, which I can’t afford to buy myself,” Chris said. “Being a soldier on the front lines half the time you don’t know where to aim is pretty scary.”
Ukrainian soldiers hold Javelin rocket launchers on the outskirts of Kiev in March. Photo: Reuters.
When he returned to the US, Chris joined a network of defense contractors and American veterans to find solutions to the problem. They advocated buying commercialized high-tech equipment for the civilian market and bringing it to the front lines in Ukraine.
The US government still strictly controls the purchase and sale of sensitive military equipment. Chris’ team had to approach at least three US congressmen for advice on the fastest licensing process to get this sensitive device to Ukraine.
This spontaneous “arms pumping” effort parallels and is independent of defense aid packages from the US government to Ukraine.
US defense officials said that the Donbass battlefield, in eastern Ukraine, had turned to artillery battles. The West therefore focuses on sending to Ukraine Heavy Weaponshas a longer range, in the hope of helping the country’s army increase its ability to resist the overwhelming fire of Russian artillery and launch a counterattack when the opportunity arises.
“Ukraine has repeatedly confirmed that it does not need more light weapons from the United States,” said Mike Kafka, a Pentagon spokesman, when asked to comment on the phenomenon of private groups organizing themselves to buy more weapons for Ukraine. “We just deliver equipment, it’s up to them how they allocate it.”
According to data from the US Department of Defense, the country has sent more than 50,000 armor and bulletproof helmets, 2,000 sets of combat goggles of all kinds, including night vision and thermal imaging equipment. Veterans groups like Chris argue that aid equipment through government channels in fact does not reach the front lines fast enough, or the quantity is not enough to meet actual needs.
“There’s a disconnect between those at the top of the chain and those on the front lines,” said Ryan Gisolfi, co-founder of private security firm Delta Level Solutions. He opened the company this year with the goal of helping to bring Western military equipment into the hands of Ukrainian special forces.
Hunter Ripley Rawlings, lieutenant colonel of the Marines America retired, came to Ukraine from the early days of the war with similar goals. Through a group of “Ripley’s Heroes” and a number of non-governmental funds, Rawlings procured non-lethal military equipment and medical supplies to be shipped to Ukraine.
Rawlings asserted that the battlefield information he had received showed that frontline units in Ukraine still did not receive enough night vision goggles and bulletproof armor. “We’re filling a huge void,” he said.
Ukrainian soldiers deployed in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, at the end of February. Photo: AFP.
A few weeks ago, Chris through the Rawlings network approached Project SIRIN and ordered night vision and thermal imaging equipment. The new SIRIN project was established earlier this year. They recruited Chris as a field member, helping to identify the real needs of frontline units in Ukraine.
The SIRIN project also includes Canadian veterans, working with donations and grants from other veterans organizations. Over the past few months, groups with similar operating patterns have sprung up across the US and Europe.
Most successful retention groups focus on medical supplies, vehicles, and communications equipment. Military equipment is still a hard-to-reach item. Groups like the SIRIN Project have to find special distributors, including companies that specialize in serving the rich who like to buy high-tech gadgets.
Transporting weapons to Ukraine is also a difficult problem. Most shipments reach Ukraine thanks to personal relationships, closed networks and mutual trust in the community of veterans and former US special forces. These groups advocate maximum secrecy, partly because of habits forged in US special forces, partly because of concern about the risk of Russia finding a way to disable the network.
A representative of SIRIN said that the group sent to Ukraine 22 night vision goggles, 8 sets of thermal imaging equipment and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a total value of about 250,000 USD. Rawlings alone helped bring 60 sets of night vision goggles and 20 sets of thermal imaging equipment to the Ukrainian front lines, through support from partners in the US and Poland.
Chris said that the Western network of veterans is focusing on supporting specialized night vision equipment after talking directly with frontline units of Ukraine. The more accurate the night reconnaissance information, the more Ukrainian soldiers have the opportunity to organize raids in the right location and effectively.
U.S. veterans groups argue that enhancing the Ukrainian military’s nighttime reconnaissance capabilities could make a big difference in battlefield outcomes, “because not all Russian units have night-time capabilities.” , Chris said.
Some experts believe that the phenomenon of American veterans organizing themselves to support the Ukrainian army partly affects the combat effectiveness of some units, but is not a long-term solution for the hostilities in this country.
Mark Cancian, a former colonel in the United States Marine Corps, now a senior adviser to the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) of the United States, shares the current movement “like a piece of cake.” personal tape”, effective but not a far-reaching solution.
“Every model of large-scale organization has some gaps. You can’t send people down to platoons and squads to check what they need. In the long term, Ukraine needs to create a system that helps the units. you can meet the needs of weapons,” he emphasized.
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