Posted on 01/30/2023 6:11:19 PM PST by Mariner
US President Joe Biden has ruled out sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, despite renewed calls from Ukrainian officials for air support.
Asked by a reporter on Monday if the US would be providing the planes, Mr Biden replied simply "no".
His comment comes a day after Germany's leader also ruled out sending fighter jets.
Ukraine has said it needs the jets to take control of its airspace in its ongoing war with Russia.
F-16 Fighting Falcons are widely considered one of the world's most reliable fighter jets and are used by other countries, such as Belgium and Pakistan.
They would be a significant upgrade on the Soviet-era fighting jets Ukraine is currently using, which were made before the country declared independence from the USSR more than 30 years ago.
However, Mr Biden has repeatedly rebuffed Ukraine's pleas for the jets, instead focussing on providing military support in other areas.
The US announced last week that it would supply Kyiv with 31 Abrams tanks, with the UK and Germany also pledging similar support.
Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister, Andrii Melnyk, welcomed that announcement but asked allies for the creation of a "fighter jet coalition" that would also provide Ukraine with Eurofighters, Tornados, French Rafales and Swedish Gripen jets.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Stopping Russia is in our interest. Reagan knew that, why don't you?
Poland doesn't need more F-16s, they already have 48 of them. What they want are F-35s. They've ordered 30 and want more.
Check OUR lack of border.
Job ONE!!!!!
Reagan negotiated. You remember that right? Or are you another youngster on here that knows nothing.
Reagan built up our military. What has pig faced Biden done?
Reagan got the Saudis to increase oil supplies to drop the price of oil to nothing. What has pig faced Biden done?
Reagan got the Soviets to the negotiating table. What has pig faced Biden done?
Just sending F-16s isn’t going to be a game changer. Much better than what they have, and it would be costly to Russia, but not enough to really shift the balance.
Make no mistake, the US could crush Russia’s air defense systems in Eastern Ukraine and establish air dominance in short order. But that effort would take a whole lot more than a couple dozen F-16s. It would include our most advanced EW, decoys, drones, SOF and stealth. And we would still likely lose a couple squadrons worth of aircraft in doing so. We are not giving Ukraine what would be required to do this. Not even the most current versions of F-16, nor the newest EW PODs or the F-16’s stand off weapons like JASSM, AARGM-ER, JSOW, etc.
We’ll give them enough to make the war a quagmire.
And four months ago he ruled out sending Main Battle Tanks.
The F-16s will be back on the table when his handlers tell him, or he gets a firm commitment on a suitable cash kickback.
... he was tactful and diplomatic.
THE most respected president in generations.
(Ike was universally respected as well. That's as far back as my recollection goes.)
Not surprisingly, the Reagan years were the most peaceful in my memory.
Pay Biden enough and he’ll send as many F-16s to Ukraine as they want. Pay him a little more and he’ll send F-35s and F-22s. Buy him dinner and he’ll send a B-1.
“US President Joe Biden has ruled out sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, despite renewed calls from Ukrainian officials for air support.”
...and so more Leftist voices come out and state that he must ‘pay the price’ for the classified documents that he has personal possession of.
“Stopping Russia is in our interest. Reagan knew that, why don’t you?”
Reagan didn’t do crap to stop Russia, and most here know that.
Over 4,600 F-16s have been made and at the current moment many countries are about to retire them.
The Dutch are about to retire 18 of theirs and have said they might be willing to give these to Ukraine. I am sure once it gets going there would be many others.
The abundance of available parts and technical know-how around the world is a strong argument for F-16.
I don’t know enough about fighter jets, but the other talk is about sending Eurofighter Typhoons. I read this would not be a complete package though because the Typhoons can’t do SEAD and without it there is little else that can be done.
Out of the old near-retirement jets only F-16s can do SEAD.
Keep in mind Biden also said that he wouldn’t send tanks
You’re assuming that the United States knows all the weapons in the Russian arsenal. Well keep in mind that the hypersonic weapon was quite the surprise as was the anti satellite weapon that they tested prior to a war. Russia and China have a tendency to hide their advancements in their latest weapons unlike the United States who likes to show them in displays such as shock and awe.
Zero Ukrainian F-16 pilots.
Not our ally or problem. If Europe wants to provide F-16s then so be it.
That is the stupidest post that I can recall ever seeing here at FR.
“”Not surprisingly, the Reagan years were the most peaceful in my memory.””
They were peaceful but below most people’s radar there was fierce competition around the world and our special ops, CIA, Navy, and mercenaries were busy bees in the Russian bonnet.
The peacetime military averaged about 2200 dead annually under Reagan, just from training, accidents, etc.
“That is the stupidest post that I can recall ever seeing here at FR.”
The problem that I had with the claim was that Russia was NOT a country*, and the Soviet government, which was hell-bent on taking over the world, no longer exists.
As far as Russia - just another country trying to plot its own path.
It was all Russia, Russia’s conquered empire and Russia was what was left after the enslaved countries escaped.
Russia is not an escapee from their own empire, they are just back to square one after its victims got away.
Reagan’s enemy was Russia and he took their goodies away, and those goodies joined NATO to prevent being enslaved again.
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