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Two Ukrainian pilots are being trained by the US military to fly F-16s - as Biden faces calls to send the fighter jets to Ukraine from both sides of the aisle
UK Daily Mail ^ | Marxh 5 2023 | PAUL FARRELL

Posted on 03/04/2023 11:59:50 PM PST by knighthawk

The US military is training two Ukrainian pilots on American soil to gauge how much time they would need in order to learn how to fly fighter jets such as the F-16.

The pair are being taught using flight simulators at a base in Tucson, Arizona, a senior US official told NBC News.

The official said that neither pilot will fly actual aircraft during their time in the US. As many as ten more pilots will arrive this month for similar training referred to as a 'familiarization event.'

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 1monthconquest; donbasquagmire; escalation; eussr; f16; failedinvasion; fourthreich; ghostofkyiv; nato; putinisgay; ukraine; ww3; wwiii
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1 posted on 03/04/2023 11:59:50 PM PST by knighthawk
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To: knighthawk
Two pilots, wow. Checkmate, Russia.

2 posted on 03/05/2023 12:04:26 AM PST by Right_Wing_Madman
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To: Right_Wing_Madman
...to gauge how much time they would need in order to learn how to fly fighter jets such as the F-16...
3 posted on 03/05/2023 12:12:55 AM PST by lump in the melting pot (Believe nothing until it is denied by the Kremlin)
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To: Right_Wing_Madman

“ Two pilots, wow. Checkmate, Russia.”
***************************************
Well, if one of them was the “Unemployed Ukrainian Commercial Airline Pilot who blogs and flees conscription” and the other was “The Ghost of Kyiv”, no further Ukrainian pilots would be needed. VICTORY WOULD BE ASSURED.


4 posted on 03/05/2023 12:20:34 AM PST by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA. -PRO-MAXI)
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The #ing Rats have far exceeded their war mongering accusations against Trump.


5 posted on 03/05/2023 12:23:17 AM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: House Atreides

President Trump is gonna get us into World War III!!!

Oh, wait, not President Trump............


6 posted on 03/05/2023 12:25:30 AM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Right_Wing_Madman

>> Two pilots

It’s a half-truth


7 posted on 03/05/2023 12:25:33 AM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: knighthawk

What “both sides”?


8 posted on 03/05/2023 12:41:25 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: knighthawk
2... then 4... then 8.... Exponential growth, anyone?

Over 4,600 F-16s have been built. They have support all over NATO. Plus, the F-35 program is going strong. Give Ukraine F-16s, replace the donated planes with newer F-16s or in time more F-35s.

Basing in a NATO country to attack Russian forces is out. Basing inside Ukraine will be a problem. The remaining UAF is operating from highways and moving around.

The F-16 on average needs twice the runway of a Mig-29, meaning there are fewer potential places it can operate. Ukraine does not want to give Russia easy targets.

9 posted on 03/05/2023 1:10:10 AM PST by Widget Jr (🇺🇦 Sláva Ukrayíni 🇺🇦 - No CCCP 2.0)
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To: Right_Wing_Madman

A whopping two????


10 posted on 03/05/2023 1:41:58 AM PST by rdl6989 ( )
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To: knighthawk

The vast infrastructure that is necessary to keep jets in the air is not something one can replicate overnight. Since the idea of building an airbase in or near the Ukraine that could keep F-16s in the air is ridiculous, will the F-16s fly off of a US aircraft carrier in the Black Sea? Will the Ukrainian pilots just fly the jets until they break, then eject, saying ‘oh well’ thanks for the memories. C’mon Man!


11 posted on 03/05/2023 1:58:39 AM PST by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try)
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To: Ronaldus Magnus III

Both Poland and Romania operate F-16’s.

So “near Ukraine” is not a problem. If a Ukrainian F16 needs more intensive service it’s not far away.

And the real issue with service isn’t parts or equipment, which can be bought or donated, it is personnel. And Europe is full of experienced F16 maintainers that could easily be hired to work in western Ukraine and besides servicing F-16s, do a train the trainers thing with the Ukrainian AF crews.


12 posted on 03/05/2023 2:16:01 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: Ronaldus Magnus III

F-16s cannot launch from aircraft carriers.

Secondly, just as in Afghanistan, service and support is done by US Contractors with very lucrative contracts that kick back to politicians.

The US uses contractors because the key technology is not trained to foreign support personnel that can be hired by China.


13 posted on 03/05/2023 2:39:31 AM PST by Erik Latranyi (Make America Florida)
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To: Right_Wing_Madman

meanwhile:

Putin’s army can’t figure out how to use tanks, and the battlefield in Ukraine is littered with burnt wrecks

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/infighting-in-russia-as-wagner-head-publicly-shames-putin-s-military-leadership/ss-AA181xgm?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=cf137555091748d3f6be1deb58405a0f&ei=6#image=21


14 posted on 03/05/2023 2:41:48 AM PST by Sunsong
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To: knighthawk

Tucson? That means Davis-Monthan AFB. I don’t think the US Air Force has any F16s at Davis-Monthan, the home base of the A10 Warthogs and a huge aircraft graveyard. I think Luke AFB near Phoenix is where the F16 training center is.
But I guess I am just quibbling.


15 posted on 03/05/2023 3:00:52 AM PST by Tupelo (A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand)
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To: buwaya

Nevermind.


16 posted on 03/05/2023 3:05:46 AM PST by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try)
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To: knighthawk

The sooner the inexperienced Ukrainian F-16 pilots take to the air against Russia, the sooner they will be blown out of the sky.

A “familiarization” flight training in simulators is not intense fighter combat training.

This is all propaganda.

There is a very good reason nobody is handing over F-16 fighters to Ukraine for combat. The world would see how fast Russia would shoot them down and how impotent the U.S. and NATO have become.

NATO has become a dinosaur in its death throes. The continuing expansion of NATO after the break-up of the Soviet Union has been unnecessary except to make American crooked politicians more wealthy via kickbacks. It has been a way to milk the U.S. taxpayers for money to vastly enrich American weapons manufacturers who have shared the wealth with political crooks.

This is absolute desperation by globalist warmongers in the face of a complete debacle in Ukraine which every day shows how fake is the effort to try to project Western “strength.”

The West cannot defeat Russia and the whole world can see it. Who do these lunatics think they are fooling? Begging the world for donations of artillery ammunition is not inspiring much confidence in the military “power” of the West.


17 posted on 03/05/2023 3:17:39 AM PST by Gnome1949
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To: Gnome1949

ease up on the propaganda, Russian troll

you lost 30,000 troops and billions of dollars trying to take Bahkmut, just to advance 20 miles in 6 months

meanwhile your O & G revenues were down 48% last month

Russia cannot win this, only the really stupid can’t figure that out

yes, that includes Putin


18 posted on 03/05/2023 3:33:50 AM PST by canuck_conservative
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To: Gnome1949

I think the most immediate Ukrainian need isn’t for Air to Air combat. It is to do look down-shoot-down intercepts of Russian cruise missiles, which the F-16 variants under consideration should be able to do quite well, with AMRAAMS. This would be to reinforce the Ukrainian air defense system that is running low on S300 missiles.

Or this would be Job #1 initially, anyway.

Russian aircraft don’t overfly Ukraine proper because of that Air Defense system. So I doubt Ukrainian fighters will be tasked with intercepting them.


19 posted on 03/05/2023 3:43:17 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: knighthawk

Everything you hear in the Media about this war is a LIE

“Ukraine is being LIBERATED by Russia, not attacked. The are removing the Khazarian mafia, the US biological weapons labs, and the Biden/Obama money laundering operations. My organizations speaks to dozens of people currently living in Ukraine and they are so happy that liberation has finally come. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE MEDIA....ALL STORIES ARE LIES. The enemy is in the gates, not in Russia. CLUE IN”

-Nick Sylvester


20 posted on 03/05/2023 3:45:59 AM PST by afchief
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