A Russian reserve captain - Vasily Dandykin recently stated that according to him F-16
could pose a severe challenge to the Russian Aerospace Force’s (VKS’) Su-35 and MiG-31
aircraft.
But the U.S. is not in a hurry to transfer the jets.
Despite acknowledging the continued threat posed by Russia's air force to the region,
the highest civilian and military officials for Europe in the Pentagon have reaffirmed
to Congress that the Department of Defense does not consider it a pressing matter to
supply modern Western fighter jets, such as the F-16, to Ukraine.
During their testimony to the House Armed Services Committee on April 26, General Christopher
Cavoli, the commander of U.S. European Command, and Dr. Celeste Wallander, the assistant secretary
of defense for international security affairs, stood by the Department of Defense's position
that Ukraine's most critical requirements in its conflict with Russia should take precedence,
and advanced airpower is not among them.
Wallander said, “Our focus has been on … Ukrainian priorities
for the fight, and aircraft, while on the list, Western modern aircraft is about eighth
on the list.
And so we have focused with resources on the highest priority capabilities, and that has
been air defense, artillery, and armor.”
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes why Ukraine is unlikely to get F-16 anytime soon?
Let's get into the details.
Wallander put forth the viewpoint that supplying Western fourth-generation fighters to Ukraine
and providing them with the necessary training would take too long to be of any use in their
present conflict, a perspective that has also been espoused by other officials at the Pentagon.
Instead, Cavoli and Wallander highlighted the recent handover of Soviet-era fighters
from Poland and Slovakia to Ukraine, citing that these aircraft could be promptly incorporated
into the ongoing operations.
Wallander said, “Legacy Soviet aircraft have been helpful
to the Ukrainians because their pilots are trained on those aircraft, they know how to
use them, they know how to maintain them”
Cavoli also appeared to suggest that Ukraine does not require F-16s to challenge Russia's
air superiority.
He said, “In the near term and into the mid-term,
what Ukraine really needs to do is control the airspace over its country and over its
forces.
And they’ve been doing that very effectively with ground-based air defense.
So that’s the thing that’s most imperative right now, and it’s been very well served
by ground-based air defense.”
Viewers may note that Ukraine has got or is on the way to getting several Western air
defense like Gepard, IRIS-T, Patriot The country also has some Soviet-era platforms
like S-300.
F-16 like many other Western Jets requires well-maintained air bases.
The jet has delicate landing gear.
So, a rough runway could result in problems during take-off and landings.
The fighter also has an air-inlet nose that sucks everything from the ground.
So, a very clean runway without debris is required to operate the jet with a high risk
of Foreign Object Debris (FOD) going in and damaging the engines.
For F-16, Ukraine will have to do extensive work on hangers and runways.
Russian satellites will be able to easily detect them and hence Ukraine lose any element
of surprise.
In this context, is to be taken into consideration that Russia has several long-range missiles
that can hit these bases like Kizhal, Kh-22, etc.
There is a high possibility that Russia can easily disrupt any plans for Ukraine to operate
F-16s just by preemptively hitting these bases and runways .