#F-16 fighter jets : US lets allies give jets to Ukraine
▻https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65649471
The US legally has to approve the re-export of equipment purchased by allies and the move will clear the way for other nations to send their existing stocks of F-16s to #Ukraine.
[...] The US had been sceptical about providing Ukraine with modern fighter jets - at least in the near term. Its focus has instead been on providing military support on land.
[...] And in February, President Biden told reporters that he was “ruling out for now” sending advanced fighters to Ukraine.
But Mr Sullivan told reporters that the US had provided weapons to Kyiv as they were needed on the battlefield, and the decision to start supplying advanced fighters to Ukraine indicated the conflict had entered a new phase.
[...] Mr Sullivan also indicated the jets would only be used for defence purposes, adding the US would neither enable nor support attacks on Russian territory.
“The Ukrainians have consistently indicated that they are prepared to follow through on that,” he said.
While the change in US policy is significant, training pilots to fly F-16 jets will take time. Ukraine does have more trained fighter pilots than aircraft at present. But even training experienced fighter pilots on a new plane could take up to four months.
And then nations will need to agree to supply the jets. The F-16 is widely used by a number of European and Middle East nations as well as the US, which still manufactures the aircraft. Who is willing to supply the jets is the next key question.
The UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark also welcomed the US move.
Rappel que la Pologne et la Slovaquie ont livré récemment des #mig-29.
Quant à la France elle est pour le moment prête à entraîner des pilotes, pas à livrer des avions ▻https://seenthis.net/messages/995593
