After months of U.S. insistence that Ukraine did not need F-16s to fight its war with Russia, Washington finally relented to pressure, agreeing not to stop allied nations from sending Kyiv the advanced Western fighter jets it has long desired.
following U.S. agreement to allow third countries to transfer the aircraft, according to an adviser to Kyiv’s Ministry of Defense.
has been Kyiv’s holy grail. But the Biden administration, with more than 1,000 of the planes in the U.S. arsenal and at least that manyrepeatedly said no. The United States retains the right to veto other nations transferring the planes to third countries. the White House to approve the transfer of M1 Abrams tanks, over Pentagon reluctance, making sure allies on both sides of the Atlantic were making major commitments to the war effort in tandem.President Biden informed G-7 allies of the F-16 decision at their ongoing summit in Japan, national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed to reporters in Japan on Saturday morning.
The timeline may not be quite as rapid as Ukraine anticipates, as what are likely to be the willing suppliers — primarily northern European countries with F-16s such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Poland — need time to review their arsenals for availability and training gets underway.Last Monday, Zelensky said during a visit to Britain that he and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had discussed the transfer of fighter jets with “very positive” results.
Of all the Western fourth-generation fighters, including Tornados and the French-made Mirage, the F-16 is most desirable “because of its versatility, because of the payloads that it carries, because of the type of missiles that it is capable of carrying, because of the range of its radars, because of the range of its missiles,” Sak said.
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