Walking back on his earlier statements, US President Joe Biden on Friday informed his G7 allies that Washington DC will support a joint effort to train Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation aircraft, including F-16s. The training is expected to commence in the coming weeks; however, it will take place in European countries. US military personnel will also take part in the training.
Biden had earlier said that he didn’t think Ukraine needed F-16 fighter jets. The decision to form a joint training programme was made very quickly by Joe Biden after consultations with America’s European partners. Whether or not to give F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine was a major issue on the G7 meeting agenda. This comes after UK PM Rishi Sunak called on European nations having F-16s in their stockpile to send them to Ukraine to help defend the nation against a Russian offensive.
Training will take months to complete
A US official was quoted by CNN as saying that the training will take months to complete. “As the training takes place over the coming months, our coalition of countries participating in this effort will decide when to actually provide jets, how many we will provide, and who will provide them,” the official said.
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The official added that “to date, the United States and our allies and partners have focused on providing Ukraine with the vast majority of the systems, weapons, and training it requires to conduct offensive operations this spring and summer. Discussions about improving the Ukrainian Air Force reflect our long-term commitment to Ukraine’s self-defense.”
US to allow nations to send F-16s to Ukraine
Biden administration has also signalled to European allies that the US would soon allow them to send their F-16s to Ukraine. Some nations have agreed to help Ukraine; however, they will have to first take approval from the US as its sensitive technology is involved.
Earlier, UK PM had advocated for creating an international forum to help Ukraine procure advanced weaponry and to impart training to Ukrainian troops.
F-16s: Ukraine’s longstanding demand
Ukraine has argued that it needs F-16s to deter Russian missile and drone attacks. “We need F-16s, and I am grateful to our allies for their decision to work in this direction, including training our pilots,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
It must be noted that countries like Netherlands and Belgium have F-16s in their air force but Britain doesn’t.
