The first batch of F-16 fighters arrived in Ukraine
12 hours agoMore than a year after the United States agreed to the transfer of F-16 fighters to Ukraine, the first aircraft arrived on its territory. The deadline for delivery was the end of July, and it has been maintained, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg.
According to them, the number of aircraft is small. At the same time, they do not know whether pilots trained by Western countries will be able to immediately begin combat duty or it will take more time.
The delivery of the aircraft themselves is only part of the process of strengthening the Ukrainian Air Force. It also includes training of pilots and maintenance personnel, preparation of runways and bases for repair and maintenance.
The process of training F-16 pilots in the West takes about four years. After that, U.S. pilots typically spend at least a year in their unit before being sent to their duty station, "and these guys will go straight into battle," a U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal about the Ukrainian pilots.
According to The New York Times, so far only about a dozen F-16s will be able to participate in sorties, to which about 20 trained pilots will be attached.
Ukrainian leaders have long asked for these aircraft from Western countries, but President Joe Biden agreed only in May 2023.Four European countries - the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Belgium - agreed to supply fighters: there should be about 80 of them in total, but the process will stretch over this and next years.
Weapons for the F-16 will be provided by the United States: these will be air-to-ground missiles, two types of bombs and two types of air-to-air missiles. It will be enough to meet Ukraine's urgent needs, a US official told the WSJ.
And a senior Western intelligence official told the newspaper that it would take some time to integrate the F-16 into the Ukrainian air force and could take months before they had a noticeable impact on the course of hostilities. "The first thing I would worry about if I were the Russians would be attack helicopters and things like that," he said. . . .
https://www.moscowtimes.eu/2024/07/31/pervaya-partiya-istrebitelei-f-16-pribila-v-ukrainu-a138304