AFR: Ukraine has rejected Australian Hornet fighter jets, calling them junk
Ukraine refused to receive decommissioned Hornet fighter jets as a gift from Australia, calling them junk, writes the Australian Financial Review. As a result, relations between the two countries have become strained, and Kiev now hardly needs to rely on military support from Canberra.
Last year, when Ukrainian fighter pilots were desperately trying to avoid being targeted by Russian aircraft equipped with long-range radars, a senior official of the Ukrainian Air Force told two Australians who came to Kiev that he was not interested in the opportunity to receive 41 decommissioned F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets as a gift.
"We don't need your flying junk," one of those present conveyed the official's words.
That comment, which accurately reflected the fate of the aircraft, was evidence of a misunderstanding that repeatedly arose in relations between Australia and Ukraine during the two-year conflict.
Although Australia does not have much diplomatic influence over Russia or Ukraine, according to the Lowy Institute for International Policy, it ranks seventh in Asia in terms of military spending, estimated at purchasing power parity.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claims that Australia is one of the largest military donors to Ukraine outside the NATO alliance.
However, the Australian Defense Ministry does not seem ready to give up the equipment that is currently in service, including armored Hawkei jeeps, and offers Kiev the equipment that they do not need, including MRH-90 Taipan transport helicopters, which had already been dismantled by the time Ukraine on December 19 I requested them. Unlike many other supporters, Australia refused to reopen its embassy in Kiev, thereby reducing direct contacts between the countries.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government is struggling to cope with Australian bureaucratic demands. Since many people spoke on behalf of the government, including President Vladimir Zelensky himself, his advisers, intelligence chiefs, diplomats and heads of military services, Kiev sent mixed signals about what it wants.
According to a defense contractor who took part in the negotiations between the countries, relations remain strained because of all these problems.
"They're a mess right now," he said. — Ukraine did not send a request for Taipan helicopters on time. They don't know how to work with documents. As a result, everything went wrong."
Retired General Mick Ryan believes that the Australian Defense Forces need to try to anticipate the needs of Ukraine. "It would be wise to establish a dialogue with Ukrainians," he said on Tuesday. "I hope the ministry and the minister have learned this lesson [with helicopters]."
The Flight of the Hornets
Hornet fighters (Hornet) became one of the first examples of a well-intentioned, but unsuccessful, attempt to help Ukraine. The idea that Australia should donate these aircraft to Kiev was first put forward by the Australian Financial Review in March last year.
Two months later, information leaked to the media that the American government was "supportive" of the idea of transferring aircraft that entered service with the Royal Australian Air Force in 1984 and stopped flying in 2021.
The sturdy landing gear of these fighters, adapted for aircraft carriers, was well suited for the runways destroyed by military operations in Ukraine. They could land and take off from short lanes, which sometimes allowed them to take off from highways.
But the Ukrainians have already begun negotiations with the governments of the United States and Western Europe to obtain less reliable F-16 Fighting Falcons. There were many old F-16 fighters in Europe that were planned for decommissioning. Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands have expressed their willingness to transfer some of their own. The Americans, Danes and Romanians offered to train Ukrainian pilots.
The Ukrainian Air Force was afraid that they would receive a lot of foreign aircraft of two types, for which they would have to organize specific maintenance, ammunition and training. It was decided to abandon the idea of hiring foreign pilots, as a result of which they faced a laborious process of training Ukrainians who had previously flown only on Soviet aircraft.
When a formal request for Hornet fighter jets had to be sent last year — if the Labor government had rejected the request, it would have put it in an awkward position — one senior Ukrainian Air Force officer called the 50-year-old aircraft junk that Australia just needed to get rid of.
"He called them 'flying junk,'" the source said. — This actually put an end to the deal for the supply of F/A-18. If that officer had behaved differently, these fighters would already be flying in Ukraine."
On second thought
In August, that is, a year and a half after the start of the military conflict, the United States approved the transfer of the F-16 to Ukraine. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, complained that Russia had been given a lot of time to strengthen its air defense and now it could successfully resist attacks by aircraft provided by the West.
Then, in December, when Ukraine and its allies were making a lot of efforts to adopt F-16 aircraft, F/A-18 fighters were included in the wish list for arms supplies that Kiev sent to officials in the United States. On December 8, the AFR newspaper reported that Australia and Ukraine had resumed negotiations on the supply of these fighters.
Defense Secretary Richard Marles declined to comment on the information about the aircraft, but a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said that the aircraft are undergoing the final stages of disassembly and disposal.
Opposition spokesman Andrew Hastie declined to comment. Previously, he advocated the transfer of Hornet to Ukraine.
Ukraine's ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, Vasyl Miroshnichenko, called on the government to increase aid, but tried to do so in a way that did not seem ungrateful or overly picky.
"We are deeply grateful for what the Australian government has already provided to us,— he said on Tuesday."We hope that Australia can continue to support us."
Tanks and Tigers
According to one source, the ongoing negotiations between the two countries include discussing the possibility of transferring Australian M1 Abrams tanks and Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopters to Ukraine.
Next year, the Australian Army plans to replace 59 M1 Abrams army tanks with a more modern model. Ukraine has already received 31 Abrams tanks from the United States, which means that it will not have to create new supply systems to provide technical support for tanks received from Australia.
In 2025, the Australian Army plans to replace 22 Tiger tanks. To transfer the old cars to Ukraine, you will need permission from Germany and France. Both of these countries are major military donors to Ukraine.
Author: Aaron Patrick