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Ukraine receives first F-16 fighter jets to bolster defenses against Russia, officials tell AP

Ukraine has received the first F-16 fighter jets that it has sought for months to fight back against an onslaught of Russian missile strikes, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press.

A Ukrainian lawmaker also confirmed Ukraine had received a small number of F-16 fighter jets. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak on the subject publicly.

Ukraine has been pushing its Western allies for F-16s for Ukraine for months, saying they were critically needed to fight back against the onslaught of missiles Russia has fired against it. The F-16 is specialized in suppressing enemy air defenses. The West has hesitantly moved toward providing the jets, after previous concerns that arming Ukraine with advanced weaponry would further escalate the war with Russia.

The U.S. has also been training Ukrainian pilots on how to fly the jets and has already graduated the first group of pilots on its operation.

frankgrimeszz ,

Great, but I’m pretty sure one of them is gonna Kamikaze right into the Kremlin soon.

Aurenkin , (edited )

Anyone more informed than me have a read on the possible impact that could have on the war? I imagine at the very least they will be getting pilots back who were training for this plus extra jets than they already have which by itself would be quite helpful. Beyond that does this represent a significant step change in the capabilities of the Ukrainian airforce? I’m guessing and hoping yes based on all the anticipation around this but I know nothing about this stuff.

EDIT: Thanks for the replies below. I also saw another interesting analysis that pointed out that Ukraine can now use a much larger stockpile of standard NATO munitions that the F-16 is compatible with. Seems like an absolutely huge deal.

SteveFromMySpace ,

Short answer is this gives them quick, powerful strike capabilities that are simply not possible with drones and ground forces. They can also “scramble” for quick reactions to enemy action/intel on enemy locations.

Skua ,

One of the main things it does is actually prevent them losing a capability rather than granting them a new one. It can replace a lot of the Russian- or Soviet-built planes that Ukraine started the war with and obviously can't easily replace now. That's not particularly exciting and doesn't change the course of things, but it does prevent the course changing in a bad way

mlg ,
@mlg@lemmy.world avatar

Months?

Pretty sure it’s been 2+ years since they asked. Wonder if they even got AMRAAMs with em, otherwise they’re gonna be useless for air to air.

Lost_My_Mind ,

24 months is still months…

MediaBiasFactChecker Bot ,

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> Factual Reporting: High
> Country: United States of America
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