US to send advanced weaponry for F-16s to Ukraine, bolstering Kyiv’s military
The US will arm the fleet of F-16s headed to Ukraine from other European countries with advanced, American-made weapon systems — solving a persistent worry about where munitions for the potentially game-changing fighter jets would come from.
Denmark, Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands are slated to send about 80 of the fourth-generation fighters to the embattled country, which has for two years been desperately fighting off an invasion by Russia.
But it wasn’t clear whether the Pentagon planned to arm the planes.
Now that question has been answered, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
“We are confident that we will be able to supply all of those [weapons], at least the critical volumes that they need,” a senior US official told the newspaper.
The Pentagon plans to send to Ukraine AGM-88 HARM air-to-ground missiles; small-diameter bombs that have a tight blast radius; and long-range versions of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which convert so-called “dumb” bombs into smart weapons.
It will also send medium- and short-range air-to-air missiles, the Journal said.
Although the F-16 — known for years as the “Fighting Falcon” — is a high-profile plane that will bolster and expand Kyiv’s military capabilities, it’s unlikely to turn the tide of the grinding conflict on its own, foreign officials said.
“It’s an important addition,” said Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide. “It’s not in itself changing the war.”
But without American weaponry, it wouldn’t do much of anything, according to one Norwegian military officer.
“The aircraft itself is worthless without the weapons,” Maj. Gen. Rolf Folland, chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, told the outlet.
Of course, a number of challenges still remain — namely, training enough pilots, maintaining the aircraft and determining how to use them in a way that won’t violate strict American rules, the Journal said.
Training has been a piecemeal process that’s taken place over several countries — and there aren’t quite enough Ukrainian pilots at the moment, which limits how many F-16s can actually be sent to the embattled country.
But the US wants to expand training opportunities by letting Ukrainian pilots learn their craft on American bases in the United States, according to the outlet.
Those pilots will also see far less training than their Western counterparts — they must learn everything they need to know inside a year, as opposed to the four years a Danish pilot would take.
And instead of spending time with their unit before deployment, “these guys are going to go directly into combat,” the US official said.
Maintenance provides another hurdle, as the Ukrainians will need a supply of spare parts to fix jets that are damaged or fail for other reasons.
There are also questions about how the planes will be used against the Russians.
Ukraine wants to fly them right to the border and shoot into Russia, but US officials say the country’s surface-to-air missile systems won’t allow that.
Instead, Kyiv will only be allowed to use the new weaponry on Russian territory in response to attacks from across the border, the Journal said.
There’s also questions about whether they’ll be used as interceptors — hunting Russian planes and forcing Moscow’s air force away from the front — or as ground support meant to bolster Ukrainian troops on the ground.
“It will not be a silver bullet,” said Folland, the Norwegian general. “But if you have F-16s with long-range weapons, you will push the Russian air force further away and that is the most important thing.”
