Two weeks ago, the Trump administration announced it will allow the sale of some lethal weapons to Ukraine, including the Javelin anti-tank missile. The United States has sent non-lethal aid to Ukraine since soon after the outbreak of the war, including night vision goggles, Humvees, and body armor. However, Javelins will not be the first type of lethal aid sent to Ukraine by the United States — rocket-propelled grenade launchers manufactured in Texas may already be on the front lines of the Donbas.

2016 Contract, 2017 Deliveries

In December 2017, the Ukrainian defense trade company Spetstechnoexport announced that it worked with the American company AirTronic, based in Spring Branch, Texas, to supply PSRL-1 (Precision Shoulder-Fired Rocket Launcher, an “advanced version of the Soviet RPG-7”) weapons systems to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. A contract, as the press release described, was drawn up in 2016 with approval from the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

An October 2016 press release from AirTronic matched the information provided last month by the Ukrainian defense trade company. In this press release, AirTronic described:

A recent $5.5 million contract award originating from an Allied European military customer for their Precision Shoulder-fired Rocket Launcher (PSRL) and system-supporting accessories.

This “Allied European military customer” was, apparently, Ukraine.

Specific information on the contract between Ukraine and AirTronic came from a source not accustomed to providing verified information: Southfront, the notorious pro-Russian/separatist online news portal. In August 2017, Southfront published photographs of the contract between AirTronic and Spetstechnoexport, with details which were since been proven correct. In particular, one page of the contract shows that 100 PSRL-1 systems were to be sold at a price of $5,454.75 per unit, for a total of $554,575. This total is almost exactly one tenth of the announced agreement ($5.5 million) in the October 2016 AirTronic press release.