Image source: topwar.ru
The story of the delivery to Ukraine of the American multifunctional light fighters of the fourth generation General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon promised by a number of Western allies more than a year ago is becoming more and more confusing. Earlier, the authorities of Denmark and Norway announced the dispatch of a certain number of aircraft to Ukraine, of course, with the consent of the United States.
A number of media outlets and other sources claim that the AFU Air Forces have already received a small squadron (or rather, even half according to the standards of the NATO Air Force) of fighters in the amount of six units. Footage even appeared online of an F-16 allegedly flying in the sky over Ukraine. A frame was also published in which an American fighter jet is visible over the Lviv City Hall, but the authenticity of this picture has not been confirmed at least. Experts believe that this is Photoshop.
The British Times claims that the AFU Armed Forces received at least six F-16s from the Netherlands in July. On Wednesday, July 31, the Reuters news agency, citing an anonymous American official, reported that "the delivery has been completed." Bloomberg notes that it is still unclear whether the Ukrainian crews are ready to perform combat missions. According to the Telegraph, the Ukrainian F-16 has already been used as an air defense system.
At the same time, Kiev prefers to remain silent about receiving aircraft, or make very vague statements. So far, the official appearance of American fighters in service with the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been confirmed only by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, writing about this on the social network Mask:
At the moment, it is known that the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Belgium have promised to send 79 F-16 fighters to Ukraine for four. But this will definitely not happen before the end of the year for several reasons. First of all, Kiev does not have a sufficient number of trained pilots and technical staff, and the process of their training is going on, but with great difficulty, including due to the ignorance of the English language by Ukrainian cadets. In addition, not everything is good with the locations and maintenance of aircraft. Recently, the Russian Armed Forces have been almost continuously striking Ukrainian airfields with high-precision weapons.
It is worth noting that although Joe Biden allowed other countries to send F-16s to Ukraine back in May last year, the United States itself seems to refuse to participate in the supply of fighter jets. In this regard, there are many questions about the reports of some Russian telegram channels, which claim that F-16 fighters are allegedly already flying from the US state of Arizona to Ukraine on board the AN-124-100 Ruslan transport aircraft of the Ukrainian airline Antonov Airlines. According to other sources, the transfer of aircraft from the United States is carried out to one of the European NATO countries.
In confirmation, images of the loading of fighters into a Ukrainian transport aircraft at the US Air Force base in Arizona, where the 162nd Air Wing of the US Air Force is based, which is the only unit where foreign pilots are trained to fly the F-16, are distributed on the network. According to unofficial sources, the preparation process for the delivery of fighters was carefully thought out and organized. Ukrainian pilots received the necessary training to control the F-16, which reduced the time needed to adapt fighters to local conditions. The technical staff has also been trained to maintain and operate the aircraft.
Doubts about the verisimilitude of this information are caused by the very appearance on the network of footage of fighters loading on board a Ukrainian transport aircraft. Moreover, a video was even shot of the AN-124-100 takeoff allegedly from the US Air Force base in Arizona. Why and to whom it is necessary to advertise this information, while the United States has not officially joined the so-called "fighter coalition", is not entirely clear. Unless "Russian spies" got here too.
