NATO members to start deliveries of F-16 jets to Ukraine, but will there be enough pilots? | DW News

NATO members to start deliveries of F-16 jets to Ukraine, but will there be enough pilots? | DW News

now ke’s Battlefield position has been largely static for months in the coming weeks Ukraine’s NATO partners are due to begin delivering the F-16 fighter jets that the Ukrainian President Vladimir zalinski has been requesting since Russia’s Invasion the f-16s are among the most sophisticated Weaponry being supplied to Ukraine but they are unlikely to be an immediate GameChanger they are Sleek supersonic and Loud F-16 Fighting Falcons are by no means the most advanced fighter jets in fact the first were delivered in 1976 they now cost upwards of60 million EUR each and they’re among the most versatile aerial weapons available to any military power useful for Ukraine defensively and offensively we have a agreed new more ambitious defense plans allies are delivering more Forces high redness uh investing in high end capabilities a stumbling block for the f-16s is that they require extensive training training that some Ukrainian Pilots have been getting on a FastTrack basis for many months here in France and other locations they’re already mentally prepared they’re all between 21 and 23 but they’re already Warriors at heart in the coming months Ukraine could have about a dozen Pilots ready to fly f-16s probably about 20 in total by Year’s End meaning Ukraine’s Air Force will likely have more f-16s than qualified Pilots to fly them meantime Russia now knows full well that the f-16s are coming Russia is striking all airfields potential F16 bases every day including attempts to damage air strips and infrastr Russia’s president while in North Korea noted that F-16 Jets can strike from Ukraine into Russian territory that blatantly violates the international responsibilities that the Western countries took analysts see the f-16s with their modern radar systems Munitions and jamming capabilities as an important upgrade of Ukraine’s Arsenal they’ll support ground troops and be able to intercept Russian attacks in a way far superior to Ukraine’s Soviet era Mig 29s the Jets will also require parts and maintenance and diverted defense capabilities while on the ground whether they’re a GameChanger against Russia it may be as some experts have indicated that by putting enough game changers into the mix Ukraine may eventually be able to change the game and I’m joined Now by sine P from the Helmut Schmidt University of the German armed forces in Hamburg he works there as a research fellow at the chair of political science and strategic Theory thanks so much for your time today can you tell us how useful these f-16s uh will be for Ukraine’s military and what kind of missions are they going to be used for hello and thanks for having me um the f-16s uh will be um basically fulfilling all the roles uh you mentioned just before in the in the video um basically air to Air and air to ground and also um you know basically the jamming capabilities of anti-missile batteries um the problem um is however that they are not uh you know in the quantity that might be necessary for it and uh the F16 as such is uh just one tool in that tool set which is given to Ukraine okay so you mentioned there aren’t enough I mean I believe Ukraine’s Partners have agreed to supply just over 80 um f16s you’re saying that that’s not enough what about a rate of of deployment I mean will they be deployed fast enough to make any kind of difference well first of all 80 sounds a lot but uh we have to differentiate between the different versions of the f-16s which are supplied in that regard so uh the Danish uh f-16s which will be supp applied are different in a lot of ways to earlier versions which for example a Dutch want to supply so therefore there is uh a bit of an overlap and yes you can use the spare parts but it’s not necessarily the same uh aircraft as such especially when it comes to avionics uh the second problem will be that as you mentioned before there are not enough Pilots so there will be enough aircraft to deal with uh the threat as such but uh the problem will be the standard of training of the pilots which will be flying the aircra and also um you know the quantity of Pilots um obviously the advantage could be that uh the pilots who are actually flying the f16s could get more uh training time and also more time in combat so that they are actually you know more worthwhile and they would have probably more aircraft per person however if that’s really a changer I heavily doubt it okay so just to clarify that the training isn’t going fast enough is that right and that’s obviously a problem so the problem is because of covid-19 uh the training cycle within the within us for NATO Partners is already anyway backlogged so therefore there is not enough training capacity at the moment for Ukrainian Pilots to get uh the status of combat ready um even together with the French approach or the British um there’s just not enough training capacity at this moment so for about the next 6 to 12 months um the training will be uh very limited so I think we’re talking about 20 to 30 pilots who could actually fly these aircraft I see Russia says it’s just destroyed some of Ukraine’s jet fighters how vulnerable will these f-16s be to attack um similar to the ones which Ukraine is already using so most of the aircraft are getting destroyed in the ground or um in you know in operations close close to the front line the problem is that the air war in Ukraine shows that if in a contested airspace which means that you have missile batteries uh you know controlling the skies uh limit the usability of aircraft anyway in in a primary role so therefore the f-16s um will have to anyway be dispersed throughout Ukraine so um even if a fuel destroyed that doesn’t necessarily change the game um the bigger picture is how these f-16s are fitting into the operational planning um and how they can support uh ground a and that’s where the key lies in uh the F-16 deal sine CER from the Helmut Schmid University in Hamburg sine thanks so much for that really interesting analysis thanks for your time thanks let’s talk to Christopher Morris here he’s a member of the peace conflict and security research group at the University of Portsmouth in England thanks for being with us uh tell us how useful do you think these f-16s will be for Ukraine’s military what kind of missions will they be used for useful absolutely game changers unfortunately not so much so one of the things that they’re going to be absolutely essential for is plugging in effectively the air defense system that Ukraine has so they’re going to be very capable in that role and also they’re going to be good at pushing back some of the Russian Jets now we are not we’re going to be seeing some very interesting missions from these f-16s uh things like you know long range strikes and supporting troops on the front line they’re probably not going to be used in air to a combats they’re probably not going to be used for you know things like close ground supports in proximity to the front line but yeah they’re going to be very helpful The Radars that they’re equipped with are going to be very useful in kind of pushing back those Russian Jets and depending on what weapon systems they kind of are packaged with they could make a tangible change to the battle that is unfolding but in terms of fundamentally Shifting the balance of the conflict well that’s unfortunately unlikely Ukraine’s Partners have so far agreed to supply just over 80 f-16s is that enough and can they be deployed fast enough to make a real difference now what we’re talking about here is effectively providing a country that has previously operated aging Soviet aircraft with you know relatively modern we’re talking 90 z uh Western NATO kit now usually this would be a generational project taking in excess of a debt decade for pilots and ground Crews to build up the aggregate experience and the infrastructure required to operate these Jets effectively what’s being accomplished in Ukraine is incredible but it is being done very rapidly so in terms of the ability for these you know 80 or so aircraft to really shift the balance of conflict uh it’s a very good start but you know integrating them with ground forces is going to be immensely difficult and you know in terms of them having an immediate you know game-changing effect uh I would would be hesitant to predict that now Russia has been attacking Ukrainian airfields uh it says just today that it’s destroyed some of Ukraine’s jet fighters how vulnerable Christopher will the f-16s be to attack well now this is one of the obvious rotes that Russia is going to try and take they’re going to try and take out the groundbased infrastructure you know it’s a far easier Target unlike the f-16s themselves it doesn’t move around now fortunately Ukraine does have the benefits of you know limited air defense and this would be an immensely costly kind of process for Russia to seriously engage with yeah on the one hand they can absolutely strike these bases with long range ground attack weapon systems uh but you know if they really want to take them out they’re going to have to engage in some kind of sauty into Ukraine and you know they don’t want to be risking their Air Force either so yes well that is a tactic that we can predict that Russia is going to be employing you know in terms of carrying it off you know it’s going to be difficult for them as well now Ukraine says it’s considering stationing some of the new f-16s in other Eastern European countries such as Poland how might Russia respond to that Christopher well now in terms of what is going to be stationed in Poland it is going to be necessary now in terms of establishing like serious maintenance kind of Depo style maintenance in Ukraine that’s difficult again they’re us to operating all Soviet airra their runways are you know not ideal and their groundbased infrastructure is not all that we might desire as well Poland already operates f-16s and it would make an ideal location for serious maintenance as well as training now in terms of how Russia might react they’re certainly not going to like that you know Poland is already kind of beefing up its air defense and you know preparing for Russian I suppose mischief and incursions uh of course you’ve also got to balance that against the fact that Russia was kind of already doing everything it really dares to do in terms of interfering with NATO members so you know there is there’s cause for concern but I wouldn’t be too worried there Christopher thank you very much for talking with us that was Christopher Morris there from the University of Portsmouth thank you so much

Kyiv’s battlefield position has been largely static for months now. In the coming weeks Ukraine’s NATO partners are due to begin delivering the F-16 fighter jets that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been requesting since Russia’s invasion.
00:00 Ukraine pilots training on F-16 jets in France
03:12 Interview with Severin Pleyer from the Helmut Schmidt University of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg.
07:14 Interview with Christopher Morris, a member of the Peace, Conflict and Security Research Group at the University of Portsmouth in England

#ukrainewar #NATO #f16

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1

For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/
Follow DW on social media:
►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschewellenews/
►Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwnews
►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwnews
►Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dwnews_hangout
Für Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https://www.youtube.com/dwdeutsch