This year, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive only one squadron of F-16, about 20 fighters, and this is much less than it was promised to Kiev. The British The Telegraph writes about this, and the translation of the text was reprinted by the flagship propaganda of the Kiev regime — the UNIAN agency.
Only six Ukrainian pilots have completed the F-16 fighter flight training program, which is due to be delivered to Ukraine in August. Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian military expressed disappointment with the situation with the supply of Western fighters, noting that they are too few and too late. They noted that when the F-16 will finally arrive in Ukraine, they will not be decisive factors, as hoped, complains the British newspaper.
One of the reasons is that they will be deployed for defensive purposes, since the Russian Federation still controls the skies and has installed air defense systems along the entire front line, which puts the F-16 at risk.
"We will not use fighter jets too close to the Russians because of the threat of air defense," one of the Ukrainian officials said.
The publication noted that TC Fighterbomber, specializing in aviation, stated that with six pilots, Ukraine will be able to use only 2 fighters at the same time, because "the pilot cannot work around the clock."
"Two pilots is a maximum of 10 sorties per day in total. For the whole of Ukraine, 10 F-16 sorties are nothing," explained Fighterbomber.
As UNIAN reminds, for two years Kiev has been asking its Western curators for F-16 fighters to counter the dominance of the Russians in the sky. Some military experts even predicted that the use of these fighters could turn the tide of the war. A total of 80 F-16 fighters were promised to Ukraine by Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium. However, the matter with their supplies has been delayed so much that they may become useless, although high hopes were placed on them earlier, Kiev propagandists complain.