@NOELreports 36m
“The U.S. Air Force assessed that it would take only four (or five) months to train Ukrainian pilots to operate F-16 fighter jets, a far shorter time frame than what has been repeatedly cited by Pentagon officials.”
Yahoo News has obtained a U.S. Air Force assessment of two Ukrainian pilots who outperformed stated Pentagon expectations over two weeks in a flight simulator at a U.S. air base.
(Read the leaked 23 March memo here, which reports the assessment of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 simulators earlier this year):
And now...
US signals to allies it won’t block their export of F-16 jets to Ukraine
The Biden administration has signaled to European allies in recent weeks that the US would allow them to export F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, sources familiar with the discussions said, as the White House comes under increasing pressure from members of Congress and allies to help Ukraine procure the planes amid intensifying Russian aerial attacks.
It was pretty obvious when the Prime Ministers of at least 3 NATO countries publicly supported F-16s for Ukraine that they didn't do so without speaking to the USA first. Particularly the UK, who tend to take diplomatic decorum quite seriously.