First this report today, then next a report featured on this blog back on April 25, 2023 with the practical reasons for banning F16s
Kiev’s pilots not allowed to train on European F-16s amid Washington’s skepticism — NYT
NEW YORK, May 18. /TASS/. Ukrainian pilots are not allowed to train on F-16 fighter jets owned by European countries, as Washington remains unconvinced that Kiev needs the expensive aircraft, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing a senior Ukrainian official.
Despite the fact that some European countries have signaled that they are ready to send F-16s to Ukraine, authorities in Kiev will need approvals from the United States where the fighters were made. Without American consent, the training is likely to be limited to technical lessons and technical language only, the newspaper said.
The Biden administration is unconvinced that Ukraine needs the expensive jets. Besides, the United States does not want its highly restricted systems to be duplicated or fall into enemy hands. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday that he had no update on F-16s.
NYT: The US for now bans Ukrainian pilots from training on the F-16
"Washington believes that Ukraine does not need F-16 fighter jets, therefore it prohibits European countries from transferring them to Ukraine and training Ukrainian pilots on them.
The New York Times writes about this with reference to the words of American and European high-ranking officials.
One of them said that the reluctance of the United States to give Ukraine F-16s is explained by the high price, because the financing of military aid is quickly running out, and also by the fact that the delivery of the aircraft would take months. In addition, Washington fears that secret components may fall into the hands of the Russians.
Because of this, the training of Ukrainian pilots is limited to the study of technical characteristics and tactical lessons without training flights on the F-16.
However, the American official did not rule out that the Biden administration would issue re-export licenses to European countries so that they could transfer their F-16s to Ukraine.
This is not the first time that the United States has refused allies to transfer military aid to Ukraine. This was the case with HIMARS missile launchers, Abrams tanks and Patriot air defense systems, but in the end the decision was changing.
- The Netherlands and Great Britain plan to lead a "coalition of fighter jets" for Ukraine to receive Western aircraft. The office of the British Prime Minister said that Rishi Sunak and Mark Rutte "will work to create an international coalition to provide Ukraine with combat aircraft, providing support in everything from training to the purchase of F-16 aircraft."
- In the summer, Great Britain will begin basic training of Ukrainian pilots to fly Western aircraft. There, they want to adapt the program that pilots of the Royal Armed Forces are trained by, for pilots from Ukraine, so that they can fly on Western models of aviation.
- Ukraine is asking its allies for Western-made multirole fighter jets, such as the F-15, F-16 and F-18. The partners have so far only agreed to train Ukrainian pilots, in particular , Britain, Poland and three other countries have promised to do so. Discussions about preparations for the transfer of Western aircraft are ongoing.
- In April, Denmarkʼs defense minister suggested that the allies would decide whether to transfer Western fighter jets to Ukraine by this summer."
How Russia could spot Ukrainian F-16s before they even got off the ground, according to an air-warfare expert
A US Air National Guard F-16C parked at Mirgorod Air Base as a Ukrainian Su-27 takes off in July 2011. US Air National Guard/Tech. Sgt. Charles Vaughn- Calls for Western countries to send fighter jets to Ukraine have grown in recent months.
- Those calls center on the US-made F-16, which proponents say will boost Ukraine's air force.
- But Russia would notice if Ukraine began modifying its airbases to support F-16s, one expert says.
Should Ukraine ever receive F-16 fighters from the US, the jets might not last very long.
The F-16 is so fragile that it requires specially prepared airbases — and those bases can be identified and targeted by Russia, one expert says.
The F-16 has a large air intake under the nose that "sucks everything from the ground directly into it," Justin Bronk, an air-warfare analyst for Britain's Royal United Service Institute (RUSI) think tank said during a recent episode of the Geopolitics Decanted podcast. "So F-16s typically require very clean, very well-maintained air bases."
The F-16 has "fairly lightweight" landing gear because it is designed to have a good thrust-to-weight ratio and "there is no more weight on the jet than there needs to be," Bronk said.
Russian fighters are built to operate on more primitive airfields, while Western carrier-based jets like the F/A-18 are designed to absorb the shock of hard landings on a floating runway... "You would have to do a lot of work to get those Ukrainian, old Soviet-pattern runways to a clean enough state to use an F-16 without high risk of foreign object debris going in and damaging the engines," Bronk said.
In addition, a lot of Ukrainian airfields are too short to be used by a fully loaded F-16.
"So you'd be looking at resurfacing work on runways and potentially extension work, all of which is highly visible" to Russia's satellites as well as to sources Moscow has on the ground, Bronk added.
Despite being numerically and technologically outmatched by Russian aircraft and air-to-air missiles, Ukraine's air force has proven remarkably resilient and resourceful. But so far, Russia has chosen to not to use its limited stockpile of long-range missiles against Ukrainian airbases because Ukrainian airpower "doesn't pose a massive threat," Bronk said. . .
Despite struggling with accuracy in its airstrikes, "Russia has the ability to put craters in things that it wants to," Bronk said. "It can't do loads of them. But if you're having to centralize something like the F-16 around one or two bases because you can only prepare one or two to the required standard within the resource constraints, that's quite a vulnerable posture."
Since Russia invaded in February 2022, Ukraine has been pleading for Western jets to replace its dwindling fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters, which are badly outnumbered and outgunned by Russia's air force.
Western bloc nations have already sent large quantities of weapons and ammunition — including tanks, artillery, and guided missiles — to Ukraine, but they have yet to send jets because of concerns about Ukrainian unfamiliarity with Western aircraft and for fear of provoking Russia."
. . .Bronk has argued that Sweden's JAS-39 Gripen fighter would be the best choice because it is designed to be easy to maintain and to operate from rugged airstrips.
"Gripen is the only option that combines austere and short runway capabilities with comparative ease of maintenance, high in-cockpit automation, and the Meteor missile," Bronk told Insider."
Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds a master's in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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RUSSIA TODAY
US blocks European F-16 training for Ukrainian pilots – NYT
"The US has forbidden its European allies from providing Ukrainian pilots with training on F-16 fighter jets, the New York Times has reported, citing a high-ranking official in Kiev.
Without approval from Washington, the best that Ukrainian airmen can hope for are lessons on technical language and tactical training on the ground, the outlet said on Wednesday.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been pressing his Western backers for fourth generation F-16 warplanes for months, arguing they are crucial for defending the country’s airspace amid a massive Russian missile campaign targeting military facilities and energy infrastructure.
The Ukrainian leader appeared to achieve limited progress during a recent European tour, with the UK and the Netherlands announcing on Tuesday that they would work on building an “international coalition” to provide Kiev “with everything from training to procuring F-16 jets.” London announced that training will begin this summer, while Zelensky’s office claimed that Belgium was also eager to help prepare Ukrainian pilots.
The unnamed Ukrainian official told the NYT that four nations, including the Netherlands and Norway, have “quietly signaled” that they are ready to supply Ukraine with the warplanes produced by Lockheed Martin.
F-16s contain classified technology and Washington’s allies must obtain special “releasability” permission from the Pentagon to even discuss it with outside partners such as Ukraine, a senior US Defense Department official explained to the paper.
> Another American official told the NYT that the administration of US President Joe Biden is sticking to its stance of not sending its own F-16s to Kiev. Washington is said to be concerned that the expensive jets would absorb too much of the funding allocated by the US to help Kiev, and in any case the planes would not reach the battlefield in time for Ukraine’s long-expected counteroffensive.
However, the source did not rule out the possibility of the White House eventually issuing re-export licenses for the F-16s to European allies, which would enable them to supply the aircraft to Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that deliveries of more sophisticated weapons to Ukraine by the US and its allies could cross ‘red lines’, leading to a major escalation in the hostilities.
Russia argues that the provision of arms, intelligence sharing, and training to Kiev’s troops already means that Western nations are de facto parties to the conflict."
REFERENCE: https://mesazona.blogspot.com/2023/04/justin-bronk-is-delighted-to-share.html
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