New turn in the Ukrainian war. Having been promised German, American and British tanks, Kyiv immediately renewed its request for long-range missiles, but also fighter jets.
The message was heard loud and clear by American industrialists. Lockheed Martin is already proposing to increase F-16 production for NATO countries that will send fighter jets to Ukraine.
At the moment, Washington has not said if it intends to support this project. In March 2022, days after Ukraine’s main air bases were destroyed, the United States officially rejected Ukraine’s aircraft requests.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby revealed that Ukraine had received planes without specifying the type and number of planes or the donor countries. The leaks revealed that there would be 70 aircraft (Mig-29 and Su-25) supplied by Poland, Solvaquia and Bulgaria.
F-16 training has begun
Today, the US position seems less strict. The day after the Ramstein meeting where Ukraine’s allies met on January 20, Yuri Ignat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, made disclosures to the site. army report.
The subject of the F-16, the world’s most widely used multirole fighter, was openly discussed at Ramstein. The Netherlands announced there that they were ready to supply F-16s to Kyiv. Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said his government would consider the request with an “open mind”. A positive decision could encourage other European countries and NATO members to follow the Dutch.
In addition to the Netherlands, Lockheed Martin’s European customers are numerous in Belgium, Denmark, Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Portugal and Romania. They also intend to replace the F-16 with the F-35, which could become, according to aeronautics expert Gareth Jennings, the most widely used aircraft by European armies.
Source: BFM TV
