Ja, det är, som jag skrev häromdagen ( viewtopic.php?p=413708#p413708 ) en formidabel uppgift detta. Fyra månader är antagligen något optimistiskt:Enceladus skrev: ↑söndag 21 maj 2023 4:38 Bowing to pressure, Biden relents on F-16s to Ukraine
Ukraina hoppas få västerländska stridsflygplan om cirka fyra månader.Washington Post skrev:“If we all pull our weight … and decisions are made quickly,” Yuri Sak said Friday, “I would estimate that end of September, early October, we could see the first F-16s flying in the Ukrainian airspace.”
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U.S. officials said Secretary of State Antony Blinken was a major force within the administration in pushing to allow the allies to transfer the jets, and worked extensively with different countries within NATO to move the policy forward.
Blinken played a similar role when NATO was at an impasse over whether to provide modern tanks to Ukraine. At the time, Germany was hesitant to approve the transfer of Leopard 2 tanks — a roadblock that was overcome when Blinken pushed 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.
En passage i WP-texten (det är alltså WP-journalisterna egen slutsats) visar att Ukraina prioriterar attackplanWashington Post skrev: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.
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Ukraine, he said, is asking for at least two squadrons, each with 12 planes. Ideally, it would like to receive enough for three or four squadrons. “And of course, we need pilots to be trained for these 40-50 aircraft,” Sak said. “We need the engineers and we need to make sure that the logistics and infrastructure are in place.”
Något som jag själv återkommit till åtskilliga gånger: viewtopic.php?p=408925#p408925Ukraine is seeking sophisticated fighter jets not for aerial dogfights with Russian planes, which rarely fly over Ukrainian territory, but to be able to fire missiles from behind its own front lines, across Russian defenses to strike command posts, supply lines and ammunition depots, according to Ukrainian officials. While Kyiv has indicated it would not turn down an offer of jets other than the F-16, it is clearly their aircraft of choice, both in the current fight and in the coming years as Ukraine builds its armed forces.
USA/Nato har förstås en ganska stor palett att flygburna attackvapen, både missiler och glidflygbomber, som F-16 kan beväpnas med. Däremot måste man ha klart för sig att det inte finns några "undervapen". Nästan alla vapen, både markbaserade (som HIMARS/-M30/31) och flygburna, är möjliga att bekämpa och ryssarna har blivit bättre på det. Kryssningsmissilen Storm Shadow är ex.vis inte mer avancerad är de modernaste ryska Raduga- eller Kalibr-missilerna, och de senare har ju Ukraina visat sig fullt kapabla att bekämpa, så länge de har tillgång till adekvata LV-system.
Samtidigt viktigt för det ukrainska flygvapnet att kunna bekämpa VKS taktiska flyg, med bättre radar och aktiva radarmålsökande jaktmissiler (i praktiken den bästa amerikanska - AMRAAM AIM-120D)
The Definitive Answer On Why F-16s Carry AIM-120 AMRAAMs On Their Wingtip Rails (The WarZone)