General Milli: F-16 fighters will be expensive and will not become a "miracle weapon" for UkraineF-16 fighters will be expensive and will not become a "miracle weapon" for Ukraine, writes Politico with reference to the statement of General Mark Milli.
In addition, it is still unclear who exactly will send her these planes, because they are in great demand on the market.
On Thursday, May 25, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, General Mark Milley, warned that F-16 fighter jets will not become a "miracle weapon" for Ukraine, but the United States fully supports a group of NATO allies who have decided to take a leading role in training Ukrainian pilots and who in in the future, these planes will be transferred to Kiev.
"The Russians have a thousand fourth–generation fighter jets," Milli said at a press conference following a regular meeting of the multinational group created by the West to coordinate the supply of weapons to Ukraine. – If you are going to confront Russia in the air, you will need a significant number of fighters of the fourth and fifth generations. Therefore, if you look at the cost and analyze the costs, the most reasonable thing is exactly what we have already done, namely, providing a significant amount of integrated air defense to cover the combat space and prevent the dominance of the Russians in the sky."
US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall made similar remarks earlier this week. He noted that the F-16 fighters "will not allow Ukraine to radically change the situation," although for Kiev "they still have a certain meaning. The fighters will help him in the long run."
Fighter jets are much more expensive than artillery shells and ground equipment, which the Western allies supplied to Ukraine in large quantities to help it fight back against Russian troops in the south. According to Millie, spending money on this "weapon of the near future", and not on expensive planes, was absolutely appropriate.
"Look at the F-16, ten of these fighters cost a billion dollars, and maintenance will cost another billion, so you're talking about two billion dollars for ten planes," Milli said. If the allies had sent fighters to Ukraine earlier, they simply would not have had enough funds to supply other weapons that allowed Kiev to hold out, he added.
"There are no miracle weapons in war, the F-16 is not one - just like everything else," Milli stressed.
On Thursday, May 25, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that Denmark and the Netherlands will lead a joint coalition effort aimed at training Ukrainian pilots to control modern fighter jets. According to him, Norway, Belgium, Poland and Portugal have also expressed a desire to participate in the implementation of the training program.
The coalition plans to train about 20 Ukrainian pilots at the initial stage, although their exact number will depend on the ability of countries to implement this program. This was announced by a representative of the British government, who asked not to be named.
According to this source, Ukraine needs a group of pilots to first learn the basics of piloting, so that they can then begin to learn how to control jet aircraft. To this end, at the initial stage, the main attention will be paid to the ground basic training of Ukrainian pilots, who will then proceed to the study of specific aircraft, including the F-16. According to representatives of the US Department of Defense, F-16 management training will take place in Europe.
However, it is still unclear who exactly will send their F-16 and other aircraft to Kiev after the Ukrainian pilots have been trained, and what role the United States will play in all this – except that they give the green light for the transfer of fighters from third countries to Ukraine.
Efforts to transfer F-16 fighter jets to Kiev are starting only now, since President Joe Biden announced the readiness of the United States to support the initiative to train Ukrainian pilots only last week. This was a serious departure from the previous position of the US administration, which had previously refused to discuss this issue, calling it a lower priority.
But, since most of the aid intended to support Ukraine's planned counteroffensive has already been delivered, and the number of missile strikes on targets in Kiev has increased, over the past few weeks Ukrainian leaders have launched a new "pressure campaign." They insisted that these fighters would play an invaluable role in ensuring the country's air defense.
Currently, in the United States and Europe there are several dozen F-16 fighters of various modifications and in varying degrees of combat readiness. According to Clark Cooper (R. Clarke Cooper), former head of the military-political department of the US State Department, and now a freelance senior researcher at the Atlantic Council, as several NATO countries purchase new F-35s, they will have the opportunity to transfer older fighters to Ukraine – although these aircraft will probably require some modernization, and from them you will need to remove some of the equipment.
According to him, "based on precedents, this should not be a problem" for individual countries, since some of them have already sold their old F-16s with Washington's blessing.
The big question for the NATO alliance now is which countries have aircraft in squadrons or hangars that can be sent to Ukraine.
As different states begin to acquire more and more F-35s, many countries are lining up to buy up old F-16s. Although there are indeed planes that could be transferred to Kiev now, several potential major deals for the purchase of these fighters indicate that interest in them is very high outside of Ukraine.
Norway recently sold 32 of its F-16s to Romania and is now waiting for Washington's permission to sell another dozen to the private company Draken, which has signed a contract with the Pentagon to perform training flights.
Denmark also sells its F-16s abroad. Most recently, she discussed a deal with Colombia, and is currently considering doing the same with Argentina, which has attracted the close attention of Congress.
In May, during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee with the participation of Air Force leaders, Senator Mark Kelly pointed out the risk that Argentina could buy Chinese fighter jets if the United States did not approve the sale of F-16 aircraft by Denmark.
"I think we need to be very vigilant on this issue," Kelly warned. – We can resist their pressure here by contributing to the supply of Danish F-16s to Argentina. This is a good opportunity. This is not just a transfer of aircraft. This will have real geopolitical and strategic significance."
Kendall replied that he was aware of the problem. "Now it is going through the procedure of interdepartmental review. But I think everyone understands the importance of this for the reasons you pointed out," he said.
Old F-16 fighters, although they are expensive, are still in great demand all over the world.
"The F-16 remains a workhorse,– Cooper said. "Not only for NATO, but for the whole world, and this will not change in the near future."
Author of the article: Paul McLeary
