Posted on 05/14/2024 2:44:50 PM PDT by McGruff
The expected delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine may come too late to have a significant impact on Russia's ongoing offensive in Kharkiv, experts have told Newsweek.
Ukrainian pilots, who for most of the more than two-year war have flown Soviet-era MiG aircraft, have recently been finishing up training on the U.S.-made jets in anticipation of receiving deliveries from Western allies including Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday that Ukraine could expect to receive the first batch of F-16s from Denmark "within the next month," before revising her comment on Tuesday to say the jets would be expected in the "next few months."
However, experts suggested in comments to Newsweek on Tuesday that relying on the F-16s to counter Russian forces from the air may have been a strategic blunder, as Kyiv's military would have been better off focusing on receiving more familiar aircraft in a shorter timeframe.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
We will gladly give you F-16s next Tuesday for another meat wave attack of press-ganged young Ukrainian boys into the Russian guns.
I still don’t get how in modern warfare Israel clocked their enemies within a few days, but this war has gone on for over a year now?
Really? Really? You don't get the difference between a world class military like Russia with tanks, artillery, fighters, bombers, attack helicopters, and over 1 million active duty military, compared to a rag-tag group of terrorists armed with AK-47s like Hamas?
Really?
And the war in Ukraine has been going on for over two years now, since February 2022.
When Israel gets US jets they are stripped of the US basic avionics and refitted with the best avionics in the world.
They will be able to fly the F-16s, but there is no way they will be proficient as F-16 fighter pilots for at least several months.
Ukraine and its cheerleaders are being set up for another big disappointment with this latest wunderwaffe. These Danish F-16A/B models are nearly 40 years old and were already being retired, and they’re not going to sweep the Russians from the skies. The slaughter will just continue...
It really won’t matter though, since those Ukranian pilots will be flying for United as soon as they get enough flight hours.
In 1973 Israel had to fight combined national armies of Egypt and Syria. But yes, I haven’t really been following the war in the Ukraine, and in general don’t get why its taking so long to resolve.
What Ukraine needs is planes that can carry a weight of standoff bombs and missiles. That ain’t the F-16s metier. I’d want a few squadrons of A-10s. F-16s require antiseptically clean runways due to the underslung air intake. A-10s can operate off dirt roads if necessary.
Some nations in NATO have Migs from the Soviet era.
US could trade F-16s for the more familiar Migs.
Did they ever finally get those Migs that Trump wanted them to have early in the invasion?
The F-16 can carry missiles and bombs.
And so can Migs.
Why would it be a game changer?
As I understand things, the Russians rely heavily on artillery, which the F-16s have no great special capability to take out.
None of which has been demo'ed by the Ukes.
1. who is going to service and supply these jets?
2. who is going to protect the runways, fuel supply, spare parts, support staff and training sites.
3. where are the Ukrainian jets going to get ATCs, radar, over the horizon electronic warfare hardware, and the people to run that?
4. what is the combined plan to use this for defensive and offensive purposes, when they can’t even use the weapon systems we have given them already in a coordinated manner.
An F-16 requires 17 hours of maintenance for each flight hour!
Who in the Ukraine can provide that?
“I still don’t get how in modern warfare Israel clocked their enemies within a few days, but this war has gone on for over a year now?”
Ukraine has been fighting with a much larger military budget than Russia. Typically Russia spends around 75 billion a year on the military. United States gave Ukraine over 120 billion in cash, arms, and munitions. And the munitions we gave for the most part was more advanced.
Despite Ukrainians soldiers fighting hard and taking full advantage (minus the corruption) of this superior funding, they are going to lose. The stories of corruption and loss are piling up. All our aid did was kill tens of thousands of young men on both sides, devastate the country’s industries, and make the fat cats in the military industrial complex wealthy happy campers along with illegal political kickbacks funding our democrat enemies. Bidens is flush with money that can be traced to these kickbacks if anyone cared to look.
Our Air Force dominates because of our combined arms strategies. For example at the start of Desert Storm helicopters were utilized to suppress SAMs before the vulnerable F16s were deployed. We also have AWACs and years and years of training and specialist personnel to support the aircraft. Unless Ukraine is going to be provided with the combined arms components the F16s should be easy meat for SAMs. Unless they are getting stand off weapons for the Falcons. Plus as mentioned before these are old less capable A/B models.
As long as the MIC keeps getting fed it’s all good. /s
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