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The long-awaited American-made F-16 fighter jets will soon be in Ukraine. Three European countries have promised to deliver them to kyiv for use in the war against Russia. But its entry into operation will not be easy or fast, since there are great challenges that must be overcome.
A few weeks ago, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands promised delivery of their F-165s to Ukraineafter the approval of the United States.
LOOK: Ukrainian troops are penetrating the Russian defenses on the southern front: what are the advances of the counteroffensive?
And on Thursday of last week, the Pentagon announced that in September will begin training several Ukrainian pilots in the United States so that kyiv forces can operate the planes F-16.
“The pilots will receive English classes at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, in September, before being trained in the handling of F-16 in Arizona”said US Defense Department spokesman Pat Ryder.
As CNN explained, the F-16s are the ideal fighter jets for the Ukrainians because of their multiple roles: they can provide air cover for troops, attack ground targets, engage enemy aircraft, and intercept missiles. In addition, the European air forces have a lot of F-16s and are phasing them out to acquire state-of-the-art aircraft. So, on the market there is a ready supply of spare parts for the owners of these ships. This is not counting the F-16 it can operate with a variety of weapon systems.
But there are also great difficulties that you will have to deal with Ukraine for the optimal use of F-16 on the battlefield.
CNN specified that the challenges for Ukrainians are the pilot training programsthe installation of support infrastructure, the type of weapons deployed, among others.
Yes ok USA announced that it will start training Ukrainian pilots in September, training programs are already underway in Denmark and Romania. But this will take a long time.
CNN noted that there is a big difference between basic training (takeoff, flight, landing) and operating the aircraft in combat mode as part of a group of aircraft within range of well-entrenched Russian air defenses.
For its part, the online military publication War Zone maintained that the F-16 is an intuitive aircraft. “You turn it on, you hit the accelerator, you go out and fly”.
In this point, Ukraine is optimistic about training time. “To learn how to fight with it, to learn how to use missiles, it will take us about six months,” said Colonel Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian air force.
While Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov stated that “Six to seven months is the minimum period that should be taken seriously.”
But for the American general James Heckerhead of his country’s aviation in Europe, training periods to operate an F-16 are longer.
“It takes time to get some squads together. F-16 and make them smart enough, with high enough competence. This could take four or five years.”declared Hecker, according to the specialized portal War Zone.
CNN noted that Western pilots who graduate to other planes need about nine months to become fully proficient, and that doesn’t include training for specific combat scenarios.
In addition, the news channel referred, the design of the cabin of a F-16 it’s very different from a MiG-29, the Soviet-era plane routinely flown by the Ukrainian military.
Pilots also need to master the English language. Colonel Ihnat said that about 30 Ukrainian pilots have adequate English.
And how many planes will you receive UkraineWill they be enough to change the course of the war? According to CNN, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have committed to providing more than 60 aircraft. Some of them will be used for training.
Colonel Ihnat believes that his country will start to make the difference against the Russians with two squadrons, each of 12 F-16s.
The AFP agency consulted experts and they thought that F-16 fighters will not allow Ukraine to control the airspace.
In addition, according to the US Congress, “both camps have used advanced air defense systems that have limited the effects” of aviation on combat.
Neither force “is capable of achieving air supremacy without exposing a large proportion of their fleets.”in the case of Ukraine perhaps completely,” researcher Ivan Klyszcz added to AFP.
CNN also noted that F-16s have never engaged Russian air defenses in the real world.
“The problem is that they have to transition to an aircraft that has a lot of systems that they haven’t seen before, plus there’s a whole approach to air warfare that the US and NATO use that the Soviets don’t.”Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNN.
These fighters will allow “responding to different challenges and hitting different targets, in particular aircraft, ground targets and targets in deep enemy lines,” Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for Ukrainian aviation, explained in an interview with Radio Liberty Ukraine.
But for General James B. Hecker, commander of the US Air Force in Europe, the F-16 “is not going to be a panacea, which is suddenly going to start shooting down the SA-21s. [misiles tierra-aire rusos]″.
He added that actual mastery of a sufficient number of aircraft “could take four to five years.”
Gareth Jennings, a military expert for the private British intelligence firm Janes, told AFP that “its radar and weapons systems can be on a par with the Sukhoi-35 and other Russian aircraft.”
The F-16 They are armed with modern Western systems that will help kyiv close the capability gap with the most advanced Russian forces apparatus, AFP reported.
Ukrainian pilots will have to learn how to operate Western weaponssuch as Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), capable of shooting down Russian fighter jets from a distance, CNN reported.
In terms of maintenance, the F-16s demand much more time and money than the average Soviet-era fighters used by Ukraine.
Mark Cancian told CNN that the F-16 they need 16 hours of maintenance per flight hour. This at a cost of almost US$ 27,000 per flight hour.
This high cost is offset by the availability of spare parts. “There are tens of thousands of parts in an F-16,” Cancian said, “and all of that has to go to the Ukraine, so when the plane lands and you take it to the hangar and you have to go fix something, the part is available.”
CNN cited a report from the United States General Accounting Office of 2022 that classified the F-16 as one of the most difficult Air Force aircraft in the country to maintain: it had failed to meet its mission objectives in any of the previous 10 years.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
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