According to the US Defense One website on the 7th, Bill LaPlante, deputy secretary of the US Department of Defense for procurement, said that Ukrainian soldiers who launched the Harpoon anti-ship missile in June this year had just received US training before that. He disclosed key details of the missile attack on Wednesday at a meeting near the Pentagon.
U.S. "Defense One" website report screenshot
Lapland said that the United States "trains Ukrainians to use ('harpoon' missiles) in our country, on Memorial Day weekend." Lapland also said that after the United States trained Ukrainian military personnel to use " Harpoon " that weekend, they fired "harpoon" missiles to sink two Russian ships.
However, a Lapland spokesman clarified that the U.S. deputy defense chief was not saying that they were training in the United States, he meant that the weekend when Ukrainian military personnel were trained was called the "Memorial Day Weekend" in the United States (May 28-30).
A U.S. Department of Defense official later said that the United States participated in a joint team to train Ukrainian military personnel and said it was a "supplier" in training Ukrainian military personnel.
"Harpoon" anti-ship missile US Navy data map
reported that Lapland said that the "Harpoon" missile used in that attack was provided to the Ukrainian army by an allies of the United States, but he did not disclose which allied it was. Ukraine said in mid-June that the Ukrainian army had deployed the "harpoon" missile launch system provided by Denmark at that time. A few days later, it was reported that Ukraine claimed to use a US-made "harpoon" anti-ship missile to sink the Russian ocean tugboat "Vasily Beck". Some Russian media said the ship sank after the attack, injuring 23 crew members and missing 10 people. A week later, the Pentagon admitted that the Ukrainian army attacked the ship with a "harpoon".
Lapland also said on Wednesday that the Ukrainian army also launched a "harpoon" missile to sink another Russian warship, , but did not specifically name the ship. The "Defense One" website reported that there was no report on the sinking of the second ship. (Editor: HHJ)
