[ransomnote]

I don't normally post anything from the Council on Foreign Relations, but this is not their agenda. Instead it is an expert assessment I would have expected them to conceal rather than allow it to be published. I agree with Alexander Mercouris' assessment that the real purpose of F-16's, particularly now that the majority of the Ukrainian electric grid is gone and they're losing more rapidly now, is to provoke WWIII with Putin. Putin said he would consider F-16's nuclear threats, and the Ukrainians have floated plans to provoke another of Putin's red lines - i.e., trying to base the F-16's in ROmainia and flying into Ukraine to attack Russians. The Ukrainians were pretending the planes would leave Romainia and land/refuel/arm in one of their air bases, which is just not feasible, but would let them start that war they want so badly.

[kiryandil]

I'm old enough to remember being told in late August 2023 that the Ukrainians have "just been given more F-16s than they had MiG-29s and Su-27s".

I also remember being told for almost a year that they would be arriving next Tuesday, if only I believed the poster about it today.

I nicknamed the guy "Wimpy".

[Right_Wing_Madman]

The Ukrainians were pretending the planes would leave Romainia and land/refuel/arm in one of their air bases, which is just not feasible

Neocons can't read a map. Ukraine is a large country. The F-16 can't reach Donbass from Rumania, and the front is out of range from Kiev!

[who_would_fardels_bear]

It really doesn’t take all that much skill to fly an F-16 if soon after it taxis onto a runway it is bombed to smithereens.

[Blueway]

Mr. Blueway was stationed at Hill AFB 388th Tactical Fighter Wing as a maintenance officer in 1979 when the F16 was first operational.
The F16 was known as the first fly-by-wire fighter, therefore the pilots had a steep learning curve.
Fortunately, it had an excellent egress system that helped keep pilots alive in those early years.
It seems odd to me that a forty-five year old aircraft is in the news so frequently lately.

[frank ballenger]

Memorable scene of a pilot in an unfamiliar aircraft in Independence Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK0o-8LWLFM

[alexander_busek]

Putin said he would consider F-16's nuclear threats [...]

Oh, golly! If Putin says he views them as nuclear threats (even though they aren't), then we sure as heck better do as he says and withdraw them!

After all, Putin is the one who started this Special Military Operation war of invasion and conquest more than two years ago, so he has the right to dictate the ground rules.

And if Putin says that the Russians are allowed to use advanced fighters, but the Ukrainians aren't, that's good enough for me!

Regards,

[jz638]

It’s all for show. The Ukrainians will fly a token number of daytime only CAP sorties over Kyiv from NATO airbases with the F-16s. The pilots they have available for the F-16 training (which is a year behind schedule) are far too few in number to do anything meaningful in contested airspace, and that is assuming they’ll have enough pilots making it through training to be capable of flying any sorties at all.

[WeaslesRippedMyFlesh]

The more they crash the more they buy.

Win win for those making money from the effort.

[Rockingham]

The Russians know and play on the American fear of escalation across a nuclear threshold. As the immediate and most likely target of a Russian nuclear strike, Ukraine has no reason to desire or provoke Russian use of nuclear weapons.

In truth, even a limited tactical use of a single nuclear weapon against Ukraine would swiftly result in massive conventional retaliation by the US and NATO and Russia becoming a pariah around the world.

The single greatest threat of F-16s is against Crimea's lines of communication with Russia, especially the bridge across the Kerch strait. The range of an F-16 from the furthest parts of west Ukraine easily includes the Kerch bridge. That is why the Russians recently concentrated their air defense assets there.

[Pete Dovgan]

To little to late.

They needed about 800 combat aircraft in April of last year. They needed that to control the skies and hunt and kill artillery positions before the offensive.

This is just another example of a poorly run democratic conflict that gets many people killed for nothing. Hopefully Trump can end it.

[Dr. Franklin]

Assuming the Ukies have learned how to fly them, how can they keep them safe from Russian missile attacks on their airbases?

[mabarker1]

What it takes to Fly the SR-71