50 F-16s will be supplied to Ukraine #ukrainewar #russiaukrainewar #f16 #military MASA Military
Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited several Nordic countries one after another and gained a lot of support. The Netherlands and Denmark are expected to supply about 50 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Sweden is also training Ukrainian pilots to fly JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets. It should also provide some JAS 39s to Ukraine in the future. In fact, the F-16 had been requested for a long time. It was not until Zelenskiy's visit that the Biden administration approved the transfer of F-16s from the Netherlands and Denmark to Ukraine. Of course, Zelenskiy is very happy to get these promised additions, and his long-awaited wish for the F-16 is one step closer to being realized.
The F-16 fighter jets of the Dutch and Danish air forces are being retired as F-35 fighter jets take their place. The Danish Air Force has 19 F-16 fighter jets. It is expected to deliver the first batch of 6 jets by the end of this year, and then 5 and 8 delivered in 2024 and 2025 respectively. The Dutch Air Force has 42 F-16 fighters, 24 of which are ready for combatHowever, the Dutch Air Force is likely not to give all their F-16s to Ukraine, and it is likely to keep some for training, but even so, the Ukrainian Air Force has been able to obtain a total of about 50 F-16 fighter jets from those two countries.
Eight pilots and 65 technicians arrived in Denmark with Zelenskiy for training. Officials from a coalition of 11 nations said training will take place in Denmark and Romania.
James Hecker, commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said "You can get proficient on some weapons systems fairly quickly. It takes a while to build a couple of squadrons of F-16s and to get their readiness high enough and their proficiency high enough. This could be four or five years down the road.”
The F-16 can launch AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, AGM-88 HARM, laser-guided bomb, GPS-guided bomb JDAM-ER, etc. However, The "Storm Shadow" and "SCALP-EG" provided by the United Kingdom and France cannot be integrated into the F-16.
"Forbes'' magazine stated that the Ukrainian government has asked the US government to equip the upcoming F-16 jets with JASSM stealth cruise missiles. The request for assistance with JASSMs is to enable the F-16s to have long-range strike capabilities. The 2,251 lbs JASSM missile is extremely advanced, with a range of over 230 miles depending on the model.