Just 8 Ukrainian Fighter Pilots Begin Training on F-16s
The F-16 is a supersonic fighter jet that can carry a 1.2 megaton B83 nuclear bomb
Just eight Ukrainian fighter pilots “meet the language requirements” to begin training on F-16s – and once the jets are finally delivered to Ukraine, the Biden administration now says they won’t have that much of an impact in the war given Russia’s air defenses and massive air force, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
These fighter pilots are being trained in Denmark, which will donate 19 F-16s. The Netherlands, which has also committed F-16s, has not revealed the precise number it will contribute to the war effort, Reuters reported.
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The Ukrainian Air Force is generally comprised of Soviet-era Russian fighters, mainly the Mig-29, which first flew in 1977. Ukraine has been pushing for the U.S. to provide these fighters since the first Russian tank rolled into the country on 24 February.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Ukraine was likely to receive the planes “in the not-too-distant future.”
Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine’s deputy foreign affairs minister, said earlier this year that, “A victory of Ukraine without modern air force is scarcely imaginable. That’s why we urgently need Western fighter jets like F-16 & F35 as well as Eurofighter & Tornado. Let’s do it together dear allies in DC & Berlin.”
Col. Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesman of the Air Force Command from Ukraine, said in July that two squadrons of 12 F-16s, and some reserves, would turn the tide of the war.
“To learn the first stage of takeoff and landing and flying from point A to point B, it will take a few weeks, but to learn how to fight on it, to learn how to use missiles, we will take around six months,” Ihnat told Air Force magazine.
It is worth noting that Russia has hundreds of fourth and fifth-generation fighter jets.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Democratic candidate for president whom the mainstream media does not want you to know, called the decision by the U.S. to approve F-16s for Ukraine calamitous and will not help Ukraine achieve victory.
“F-16s won’t stop the collapse of the Ukrainian military (which some experts say is imminent). These planes require a lot of training and maintenance. This isn’t the movies,” Kennedy posted on X. He called the decision great news for the defense industry, but a “disaster for Ukraine and humanity.”
“Why not negotiate?” he posted.
TRENDPOST: The delivery of these F-16s would no longer hide the fact that the U.S. is actively engaged in the conflict, according to VK Thakur, a veteran Indian Air Force fighter pilot, who spoke with the Eurasian Times.
The F-16 is a supersonic fighter jet that can carry a 1.2 megaton B83 nuclear bomb, which WSWS noted is a key component of NATO’s “nuclear sharing” system in Europe.
President Joe Biden noted that these jets would have to operate with U.S. E-3 AWACS aircraft to make any kind of difference. These planes provide “situational awareness of friendly, neutral and hostile activity, command and control of an area of responsibility, battle management of theater forces, all-altitude and all-weather surveillance of the battle space, and early warning of enemy actions during joint, allied, and coalition operations,” the Air Force said.
“Without AWACS cover, Ukrainian F-16s will be cannon fodder for RuAF Su-30SM & Su-35 flying underground radar cover on 24×7 air dominance patrol over the frontline. The F-16s will be just another straw for Ukraine to clutch on in its terminal spiral down,” he said.
The U.S. and other Western countries are growing bolder in their support for Ukraine because they believe that the Russian threat to use tactical nuclear weapons in the country is not high. Weapons like the Patriot air defense systems and M1 Abrams tanks were once considered a no-go but have since been approved. Ukraine also wants longer-distance ATACMS surface-to-surface missiles.
Won’t help Ukraine, but sure helps the MIC’s bottom line.
Situational awareness of the battlefield is the reason we’re all being chemtrailed to death. Once they find something that works, they never let go of it.