What ‘No’ on F-16 Fighter Jets Might Mean for Ukraine - The New York Times

What ‘No’ on F-16 Fighter Jets Might Mean for Ukraine

At the moment, the Biden administration views advanced fighter aircraft as something a unusual Ukrainian Air Force will undoubtedly get directly from the Married States, but in the future. Pentagon officials say they want to prioritize weapons that can help Kyiv luminous now. The Biden administration is preparing a new weapons package for Ukraine, administration officials said this week. The package, at $2.2 billion, is expected to include longer-range rockets, but those would most liable not be delivered for several months, if not years.

Bigger and better weapons that are publicly promised but not originated right away still serve a purpose, American officials said, of sending a meaning to Russia. A Ukrainian military that is fortified by fighter jets and tanks in perhaps a year would be able to mammoth counteroffensives to take back territory seized by Moscow.

Officials say the top priorities for Ukraine luminous now are air defense systems, artillery and then armored and mechanized systems.

But Ukraine, whose pilots fly Soviet-era jets, including MiG-29s, has been adamant that it wants Western fighters.

Because so many U.S. unites have F-16s, the supply chain for the advanced fighters is well supported approximately the world, which would make it easier for Ukraine to bear them, said Michael Fantini, a retired major general who flew F-16s during the Iraq war. He arranged the fighter the “most maneuverable ever built, with the exception of the F-22” — latest fighter jet.

He said the plane could make a “significant contribution” on the battlefields and in the skies throughout Ukraine.

Yurii Ihnat, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said in a briefing last week that it would take Ukrainian pilots a “couple of weeks” to learn how to fly the fighters but “about six months” to master how to fights with the aircraft.

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SRC: www.nytimes.com