The Ukrainian Air Force has already received its first long-awaited Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets.
The confirmation came from Bloomberg sources and also from Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, in a post on the social network X.
“F-16s in Ukraine. Another impossible thing turned out to be totally possible,” he said on July 31.
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The delivery of the F-16s took place in July, as promised, but the number of aircraft will be small, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Despite this, it is still unclear when Ukraine will effectively use Western supersonic jets against the Russian invaders.
Only 12 pilots are currently qualified to fly the F-16, and even they will need to undergo further training until they reach a higher level of operability.
F-16 will not be a “golden bullet”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been calling for F-16 fighters for over a year, and only in May 2023 did his US counterpart, Joe Biden, give in to authorize the transfer of aircraft belonging to European countries.
Initially, the jets are being delivered by Denmark and the Netherlands, but Belgium and Norway are also expected to send some F-16s. It is estimated that around 80 aircraft will be transferred.
Even with the significant upgrade, many experts and military personnel believe that the F-16s will not work miracles.
“It’s not going to be the golden bullet, that all of a sudden, they have F-16s, and now they’re going to go out and gain air superiority,” said U.S. Air Forces Europe and Africa Commander Gen. James B. Hecker on July 30.
The trend is for the Ukrainian Air Force to gradually gain experience and thereby make it harder for Russia to gain air superiority, preventing some of the attacks on the country’s infrastructure that are commonplace today.
To do this, it will also be necessary to keep the F-16s safe on the ground, and that is a big question from now on.
