US will back international effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 and other modern fighter jets
Vladimir Putin is amazingly stupid for somebody who likes to think he’s clever and sophisticated.
Putin, a former lieutenant colonel in the Soviet KGB, thinks he can intimidate Ukraine by escalating the conflict or by committing more war crimes. What happens instead is that Ukrainians strengthen their resolve and the West supplies Ukraine with more advanced weapon systems which they previously had some reservations about sending to Kyiv.
Putin can now look forward to F-16 fighter jets with Ukrainian pilots.
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a lightweight fighter aircraft that was initially designed in the 1970s. It first went into service in 1979, and was used heavily by the US Air Force in both Iraq wars and in Afghanistan.
Originally built by the US in a consortium with Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, the jet, which can travel twice the speed of sound, became one of the most popular military aircraft of all time and remains in wide use. Lockheed Martin, the US manufacturer, says there are more than 3,000 F-16s in service in 25 countries.
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The decision does not necessarily mean F-16s and other fighter jets will be supplied immediately on the completion of training. Rather, it will give the US and its allies the capability to deliver planes at short notice.
Training of Ukrainian pilots can begin almost immediately. They may be ready in as little as four months. That would mean September – the first anniversary of the highly successful Ukrainian counteroffensive. But the jets will require support which is more complex than training.
“An aircraft has to come with a weapons package, ground crew and support,” said Douglas Barrie, of the IISS thinktank, meaning Ukraine will need spare personnel and to train its own cadre of engineers. It is more complicated than learning how to use a western tank.
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Justin Bronk, an air analyst with the Rusi thinktank, cautioned that the strength of the Russian air defences meant traditional close air support – bombing enemy positions – was hard to achieve because planes were forced to fly low to evade detection. As a result, their advantages in terms of weapons and radar may only be incremental.
“Western fighters with stand-off weapons would offer Ukraine an improved capability to destroy fixed Russian targets near the frontlines from a safer distance,” he tweeted, but “they would be adding to existing strike options like Himars [rocket artillery] and drawing from limited stockpiles”.
The F-16s are not a magic bullet. But they are a helpful tool which broadens the options available to Ukraine.
The F-16 is fast, adaptable, and cost-effective. It has been around since the 1970s but it is regularly upgraded; these are not the exact same jets that were flying when Gerald Ford was president.
F-16 Fighting Falcon
