Sputnik International By Oleg Burunov
Russia has repeatedly underscored that the delivery of the F-16 jets to the Zelensky regime would not change the situation on the front lines and that these warplanes will be destroyed just like other types of weapons supplied by NATO countries to Ukraine.
Problems related to the delivery of the US-made F-16 fighter jets to the Kiev regime remain – “from the number of pilots who will be able to fly them to crews ready to keep them working,” an unnamed senior defense American official told the Defense News.
Ukrainian pilots’ “training pipeline” on the F-16s “is pretty meager,” the official said, adding that training remains the main “kink” in the process to deliver the F-16s to Ukraine.
“Between Europe and the US, there are only a dozen or so Ukrainian pilots learning to fly the planes right now. That’s just a handful of pilots, and that’s just the pilots,” the source said.
Other members of an F-16 crew, such as maintenance experts, who keep the fighter in working order, are also critical, the official noted.
Other issues include “the length of the course itself — made more difficult by the highly technical English language training required — and finding a place to store the trainers,” they added.
As many as 60 F-16s are expected to be delivered to Ukraine from Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium before the end of this year. The White House earlier confirmed that Kiev would receive the F-16s from third countries once the Ukrainian pilots have completed the necessary training to fly them…
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