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This sale is an actual weapons deal whose principal contractors include Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, BAE Systems and AAR Corporation, the Pentagon said.>WASHINGTON: The US state department has approved the potential sale of F-16 training and sustainment, along with related equipment, to Ukraine for US$310 million, the Pentagon said on Friday.Days before the deal, Ukraine and the US signed a deal heavily promoted by US President Donald Trump, to give the US preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals and fund investment in Ukraine’s reconstruction.Ukraine has previously received F-16 jets from US allies under a jet transfer authorised by former President...

"We continue our meaningful dialogue with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Dick Schoof, following our meeting in Munich,” the Ukrainian leader said. “An important conversation about a just end to the war and strengthening European unity."

One of the F-16 fighter jets sent from Nato allies to Ukraine has been destroyed, a Ukrainian military source has told the BBC. The aircraft went down amid a barrage of Russian missiles on Monday, killing pilot Oleksiy Mes, Ukraine's military said. It marks the first loss of its kind since the planes were delivered earlier this month. The cause of the crash was not a direct result of an enemy missile strike, the Ukrainian military claims. It said the pilot destroyed three cruise missiles and one drone in Russia's largest aerial attack to date.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired the commander of the country's air force Friday, four days after an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners crashed during a Russian bombardment. The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website. "We need to protect people. Protect personnel. Take care of all our soldiers," Zelenskyy said in an address minutes after the order was published. He said Ukraine needs to strengthen its army on the command level. The dismissal came on the same day that Oleshchuk directed scathing criticism at a lawmaker who is deputy head...

Ukraine was given approval by the Netherlands on Thursday to use its F-16 fighter jets to strike deep inside Russian territory. The American-made F-16 is an iconic fighter jet that’s been the front-line combat plane of choice for the NATO alliance and numerous air forces around the world for 50 years. Newsweek reports permission to use Western weapons on Russian soil is a key sticking among some of Ukraine’s supporters, with Kyiv claiming this could turn the tide in the conflict. The statements from the Netherlands indicate Ukraine’s other allies may soon follow suit, loosening restrictions on its activities deeper...

Ukraine’s ex-Danish Lockheed Martin F-16s have scored their first aerial victories. According to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the supersonic F-16s shot down Russian cruise missiles during the Russian air raids targeting Ukrainian cities on Monday. The shoot-downs came three weeks after the first of the nimble F-16s, out of around 85 that Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway have pledged, arrived in Ukraine. “It is excellent to see them in action,” wrote Joni Askola, a Finnish analyst.

Ukrainians accidentally reveal F-16s’s location.

The first U.S.-designed F-16 fighter jets have now arrived in Ukraine, it has been widely reported, but the government in Kyiv remains tight-lipped about the aircraft it has spent so long pleading for. The Foreign Minister of Lithuania has apparently confirmed the arrival of F-16 multi-role jet fighters in Ukraine, following days of anonymous source but unsubstantiated statements the long-anticipated aircraft had arrived. The Associated Press stated this week they had news of the arrival of F-16s from Ukrainian officials who couldn’t speak on record because they have been ordered not to discuss publicly. Reuters meanwhile said the same of...

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia will treat F-16 multi-role fighter jets operated by Ukraine as nuclear-capable assets, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday. "We cannot ignore the fact that these planes are dual-purpose platforms that can be used both for nuclear and non-nuclear tasks … No matter what modification of the aircraft will be supplied [to Ukraine] we will treat them as nuclear-capable and we will consider this step of the United States and NATO as a purposeful provocation," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry further warned the regime in Kiev and its Western donors that their reckless...

Reports from U.S. outlets surfaced earlier this March, revealing plans to ship the first six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine by this summer. Training for twelve Ukrainian pilots, slated for completion by summer this year, is currently ongoing in the countries of Denmark, the U.S., and Great Britain. Simultaneously, these reports highlight that of the roughly 45 fighter jets pledged by Western allies, only a fraction, six F-16s, will be delivered upon the pilots’ return to Ukraine. More so, it appears that training for the pilots at Feteşti Air Base in Romania, situated 150 kilometers east of Bucharest, has suffered...

Ukraine hailed a major development in the level of support it has received from NATO at the weekend as the donation of F-16s went from ‘one day’ to ‘this year’, but the nation has gone right from that news to urging for more nations to pledge their own stocks of jet fighters, too. Denmark and the Netherlands both committed to give Ukraine F-16 fighter jets from their arsenals over the weekend, with Copenhagen saying they would send 19 planes and six of them this year, and Amsterdam promising aircraft without putting a specific number or timeline on deliveries. The Ukrainians...

Ukraine, Denmark, and the Netherlands appeared to reach a milestone agreement to give the invaded nation F-16 jets, with the first delivery coming as early this year but it comes with a condition of no strikes beyond Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders. President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the progress on the F-16 deal during an in-person visit to Denmark and the Netherlands at the weekend, enthusiastically claiming the Dutch government was going to hand over 42 F-16s, the nation’s entire stock of the aircraft. The Dutch were more circumspect and didn’t put a specific number or even timeline for delivery at the...

Ukraine has apparently now come to terms with there being no foreign donations of fighter jets during the count offensive, or even this year at all, one of the nation’s top spokesmen has said. Spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Yuriy Ihnat, a figure frequently heard on the world stage pleading for more military equipment, said it had now become “obvious” there would be no foreign fighter jets coming this year on Ukrainian television. Per a translation offered by Ukraine’s state media service Ukrinform, Ihnat said on Thursday: “It is already obvious that we will not be able to protect...

Update from Ukraine | Ukraine is close to cut the south area of Bakhmut | F-16s Approved! Awesome! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IoY0-Lv_c4 ****NEW SUMMARY Military MAPS & COMMENTS here: Invasion Day 450– Summary May 19 , 2023 Jerome News The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the last 48 hours, as of 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-450-summary/ *** Greatly appreciate the viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use on each Front map!

The Netherlands is working "intensively" with other European countries to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets. However, there are no concrete commitments yet, as it turned out today at the joint press conference of Ukrainian President Zelensky, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Belgian Prime Minister De Croo in the Catshuis in The Hague. "There are no taboos and we are working intensively on it," said Rutte. "But we're not there yet". The three other countries are Belgium, the United Kingdom and Denmark...

Two leading House Republicans have called on President Joe Biden to increase military support to Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion and reiterated support on both sides of the aisle for continuing to fund the Ukrainian war effort. Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN’s Pamela Brown on “State of the Union” in a joint interview with House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner that aired Sunday that bipartisan support for Ukraine is “still very strong.” But as the one-year anniversary of the war approaches, McCaul warned that hedging support for Ukraine could prolong...

The U.S. Air Force might buy 72 upgraded F-15, F-16 or even F-18 fighter aircraft due to low F-35 production rates and the high cost of the F-35. The U.S. Air Force “is struggling to afford 48 F-35s a year” for the first years of full-rate production a senior Air Force officer told Aerospace Daily & Defense Report. Full rate-production is slated to begin in 2019 and the U.S. Air Force wants to buy 60 planes in 2020, and 80 F-35 per year after that. This year, the Air Force is to receive 28 F-35s, whereas in 2016 the number...

Iraq has put F-16 warplanes acquired from the United States into action against the Islamic State group for the first time, the commander of the air force said Sunday. “Fifteen air strikes were carried out in the past four days,” staff lieutenant general Anwar Hama Amin said following a news conference in Baghdad. “Smart weapons” were used in the strikes, Amin said, without specifying the type. Khaled al-Obaidi, the defence minister, told the news conference that the strikes had achieved “important results” and that the jets will have “an impact on the conduct of operations in the future”.

One of the important pieces of news to come out of Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi’s visit to the White House Tuesday is that Iraq will be receiving delivery of F-16s. At Commentary, Max Boot asks if this is such a wise move, “Why Are We Giving F-16s to an Iranian-Infiltrated Government?” As Boot explains, “the government of Iraq is heavily infiltrated by Iranian agents,” and Abadi himself is an Iranian ally, selected by Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani to replace the former prime minister, also an asset of Tehran’s, Nuri al-Maliki. “Does it really make safe under those circumstances...

Four more F-16 fighter jets are slated for delivery to Egypt’s military as part of a U.S. foreign aid package that is apparently unaffected by the army’s overthrow of the North African nation’s president last week...