30 Pilots Grounded and Worse: The Sad Truth About Ukrainian F-16s. With Ukraine desperate to shore up its air defense and counter Russia’s advantage in the sky’s, US government has been disappointingly reluctant to offer Kyiv air capabilities.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/34641

by MaryADraper

8 comments

  1. It is June. I was told there would be US jets in Ukraine now.

  2. The Mirage 2000 deal is starting to make more and more sense…

  3. They will arrive in Ukraine. It is unfortunately a matter of time.

  4. This article offers commentary about how one unnamed source perceives the US’s F-16 training, but all it says is that this source is “well placed” in the US government. For all we know, whoever this source is only has knowledge about a subset of what the US government is doing. Then it goes on to share that Arizona national guard is the primary training venue for F-16s, implying that others are doing the same thing. Then, on the basis of this limited set of information, it goes on to shit on the whole Biden Administration.

    This reads more as opinion, without full scope of information, than actual reporting. My unsolicited advice to the authors and anyone outraged by this is, *cool your jets*. French Mirage 2000s might have been in the plans since close to the beginning, just that the announcement took place later because Macron might have preferred to bide his time on announcing France’s sanguinity in its efforts to counter Russian aggression.

  6. This article is referencing a prior decision, discussed weeks ago about the US not training additional F16 pilots.

    As it’s been confirmed this is true to a certain extent. The US only has a number of slots it can take up for the Ukrainians as part of its international f16 training program.

    It’s not that they won’t train 30, it’s that they are limited by the number of seats. remember they train every nation on these.

    Now you could argue that they should prioritize Ukrainians.

    That’s why other European countries have stepped up to also train

  7. The US claimed F16 cost, technical training requirements, and maintenance requirements make it less than perfect for Ukraine. It’s an old jet, but an advanced jet that comes with issues. When this was stated, many felt it was an excuse not to support Ukraine, but now that it’s a reality we are all dealing with, it’s just a failure of resolve and support. Technical advantages are expensive. Anyone who is benefiting from that cost or suffering from not paying the cost understand why it’s endured.

Leave a Reply