US approves sending F-16s to Ukraine from Denmark and Netherlands
US approves sending F-16s to Ukraine from Denmark and Netherlands
The United States has approved sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands to defend against Russian invaders as soon as pilot training is completed, a U.S. official said on Thursday.
JFC, just send them what they need already. At this point, it looks a lot like the support is just so that we can collect the payments later while extending the war. Thus ensuring Ukraine's continuing need for military support and future debts to be repaid.
They should have been trained on F-16s by a year ago now. You can train before you promise or send something. It's absolutely shameful how poorly we have helped Ukraine in this time of need.
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And not making Putin think he's losing and thus investing way more in the attack.
Slowly grind the mf down.
Training should go hand in hand with delivering, otherwise that's just wasting Ukraine's resources.
They don't plan to deliver until after the pilots and other crew are trained.
It’s not that simple. Ukraine is constantly targeted by cruise missile attacks - and while Russia is burning through their supply, these jets would be a priority target to track and destroy. A lot of pieces have to come together to make these jets deliverable and be useful, rather than just missile bait.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - The United States has approved sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands to defend against Russian invaders as soon as pilot training is completed, a U.S. official said on Thursday.
A coalition of 11 countries was due to start training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 fighter jets this month in Denmark.
NATO members Denmark and the Netherlands have been leading international efforts to train pilots as well as support staff, maintain aircraft and ultimately enable Ukraine to obtain F-16s for use in its war with Russia.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent letters to his Danish and Dutch counterparts assuring them that the requests would be approved, the U.S. official said.
"I am writing to express the United States’ full support for both the transfer of F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine and for the training of Ukrainian pilots by qualified F-16 instructors," Blinken said in a letter to the two officials, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
Kyiv will not be able to operate U.S.-built F-16 fighter jets this coming autumn and winter, Ukraine air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian television late on Wednesday.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
go get ‘em!
Don't worry, S400 is already waiting to make scrap metal out of 'em.
so, did Putin recruit you from prison or a mental hospital? or do you just collect his poo?
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So is the point to drain russia to null. I wish this had been done sooner, but now that it is..... are they gonna start bombing russian cities? Bombers so late in the game now that russia has lost so much territory just makes me think they'll be used in more civilian areas. I hope im wrong, but i dont think we need to just be killing alllllll rusians. Its not their fault they've been brained washed by their government. We need to just end putin and let their own moderate take power. Then we can see what happens.
Planes would be very important for air support. It is mostly why the counter-offensive is so slow. Russia fields planes and helicopters to bomb any armored thing that goes beyond anti-air defense coverage.
As far as I understand, russian planes have better sensors than Ukrainian ones, or there's not enough difference and trading would be advantageous to Russia because they have more planes. With f16, they would hopefully have better range than Russian planes (if they get the missiles for that at least, missiles that go with the electronic systems and may not be compatible with soviet planes).
Also, as far as I know, Ukrainian bombers are bombing at full capacity already (jdam and stormshadow among other things, I've heard they have like 4 planes able to launch stormshadows). More capable planes would increase their capacity.