The United States announces the supply of F-16s to Ukraine
The United States announced the supply of F-16s to Ukraine
The Biden administration officially announced that it agrees with allies to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine and supports plans to train Ukrainian pilots. Subsequently, Biden announced that he would provide Ukraine with a new package of military support including "Haimas" multiple rocket launchers, "Javelin" anti-tank missiles, armored vehicles and other related military supplies, worth approximately US$375 million.
As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to escalate, Western countries continue to deliver weapons and equipment to Ukraine, and provide military assistance such as personnel training and intelligence support to "support and cheer" Ukraine. This time, the Biden administration changed its previous hesitant attitude on the issue of F-16 fighter jets and announced a new round of military assistance to Ukraine, indicating that the U.S. military assistance policy towards Ukraine is undergoing a breakthrough change.
From the perspective of future development, the United States will continue to use the excuse of maintaining a balance in the war between Russia and Ukraine to increase military aid to Ukraine. This will not only trigger a series of chain reactions and arouse strong opposition from Russia , and also brought more variables to regional security.
A major change has occurred in the U.S. attitude towards military aid to Ukraine
Russia frequently dispatches its air force and uses its air superiority to carry out continuous bombings in Ukraine. The intensity of the air strikes has increased the pressure on the Ukrainian battlefield. The need for air superiority was even more urgent. To this end, the Ukrainian government and Zelensky have lobbied Western countries on various occasions, trying to get Western countries to expand military aid to Ukraine. They have repeatedly mentioned their desire for American F-16 fighter jets, which has attracted attention from the outside world. When or whether the West can provide fighter aircraft assistance to Ukraine has become a hot topic in the recent Russia-Ukraine conflict.
From a performance perspective, the F-16 fighter jet has long been the main force of the U.S. Air Force. It has been used on a large scale in the Gulf War, the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War, and has performed well.
The U.S. Air Force still has more than 2,000 aircraft in service and exported to more than 20 countries and regions around the world. It is one of the best-selling models in the world for U.S. arms manufacturers. Ukraine believes that compared with other models, the F-16 is most suitable for the needs of the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield. It is not only very cost-effective, but also easy for pilot training and operation. It can quickly improve the overall strength of the Ukrainian Air Force and even regain part of Ukraine's air supremacy. .
Under Ukraine's strong appeal, as early as a few months ago, Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia and other European countries had publicly stated that they would provide F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine. However, because the F-16 fighter jets It is an American product, and due to the confidentiality of its core technology, any movement related to the aircraft requires the approval of the United States.
Therefore, in the past few months, many European countries planning to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine have been waiting for the consent of the US government. Without U.S. authorization, European countries such as the Netherlands are unable to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, even though they are willing and able to do so.
The United States has always been very cautious about whether it can provide fighter jets to Ukraine. The United States was previously worried that once it provided fighter aircraft assistance to Ukraine, these fighter planes were likely to be used to attack targets in Russia. The result was that it was likely to stimulate Russia to use more powerful weapons, leading to an escalation of the crisis and the expansion of the war, making it difficult to end. .
In addition, the United States' approval to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine is likely to touch Russia's bottom line and be regarded by Russia as the United States directly joining the war, leading to intensified confrontation between the United States and Russia. Under this consideration, the United States has been delaying the decision to provide F-16 fighter jets on the grounds of providing Ukraine with more urgent ammunition and other military equipment, and has avoided discussing this issue on many occasions.
This time the United States relented on the issue of providing F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which is undoubtedly a major policy breakthrough. It not only shows its willingness to strengthen the provision of military assistance to Ukraine, but also provides support to those who plan to Countries that provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine have opened their doors.
It can be predicted that once Ukraine obtains these fighter planes, its combat advantages on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield will be greatly improved, thereby promoting the future development of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in a direction beneficial to Ukraine.
Relieving political and public opinion pressure on allies
This time the United States has undergone major changes in its attitude towards providing military assistance to Ukraine, especially the issue of F-16 fighter jets. The most fundamental reason is that it comes from foreign allies. public opinion and political pressure.
Over this period of time, it has become clear that there are huge differences between the United States and its European allies in assisting Ukraine with advanced weapons.
Prior to this, countries such as Poland and Slovakia "took the lead" and announced that they would send several MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine; then the United Kingdom and the Netherlands formed the "International Alliance" to actively help Ukraine promote "procurement" "F-16 fighter jets; even Germany agreed to provide "Leopard 2" main battle tanks to Ukraine despite the doubts of international public opinion.
Compared with these European countries, the United States has always been louder than rain in terms of military aid. According to U.S. Department of Defense documents, the United States has promised Ukraine a total of $36.9 billion in security assistance since February 2022, but many projects have not been implemented and remain only verbally and on paper. For example, although the United States has long announced that it will provide more than 30 M1 tanks to Ukraine, these tanks are still being produced in factories and have remained silent on when they will be delivered.
In addition, some mainstream media in the United States have even made some "blame-shifting" voices, such as complaining about Zelensky's stubbornness and adventurism. The U.S. Congress even asked the Biden administration to audit the Pentagon's aid. Uzbekistan's expenditure and other measures have been dissatisfied by its European allies, who demanded that the United States show sincerity and take substantive measures on the issue of military aid to Uzbekistan.
In addition, the United States’ agreement to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine is also necessary for the development of the Russia-Ukraine war situation. After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, although the United States and Western countries have been working hard to support Ukraine's armed forces, they have not achieved the expected results, especially the failure to realize Ukraine's "summer counteroffensive" as scheduled. An important reason given by Ukraine is that there are not enough fighter jets to ensure the security of forward positions.
Under such circumstances, the United States has increased its military assistance to Ukraine and especially relaxed its stance on the issue of F-16 fighter jets. This is in response to Ukraine’s request. It also urges Ukraine not to continue delaying and to launch the “summer counteroffensive” as soon as possible. ", in order to seize the dominance of the future Russian-Ukrainian battlefield.
Triggering a chain reaction but with a stronger symbolic meaning
The change in the United States’ attitude towards military aid to Ukraine has triggered a series of chain reactions in many countries, including Ukraine. For example, on the day Biden announced the supply of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, Zelensky quickly tweeted: “I welcome the historic decision of the United States (and the President of the United States) to support the International Fighter Alliance . ”
In addition, many countries, including Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, the United States, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium, have formed a fighter alliance and decided to replace their own F-16s by ordering F-35s. By transferring the excess F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, it is expected that up to 70 F-16 fighter jets can eventually be committed to Ukraine.
Under the influence of the changing attitude of the United States in military aid, even Japan and South Korea are "ready to make a move." When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Zelensky, he stated that he would provide assistance to Ukraine with 100 military trucks and 30,000 military rations, and agreed to use Japanese Ministry of Defense hospitals to receive wounded Ukrainian soldiers for treatment.
After talks with Zelensky, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue also announced the beginning of research on providing Ukraine with army combat engineering vehicles, portable mine detectors, military ambulances, mobile X-ray machines and air defense radars. and other non-lethal weapons and equipment to enhance the Ukrainian army’s logistics support and reconnaissance capabilities.
Russia reacted strongly to the measures taken by the above-mentioned countries. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said before the G7 Summit that the G7 Summit was actually a meeting held to contain Russia. Western countries were "playing with fire" by supplying weapons to Ukraine and would only prolong the conflict and be unhelpful to Russia-Ukraine negotiations. , and will bring negative impacts. Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the United States, and other Russian officials warned that hostile measures by the United States and other countries would bring "huge risks."
If Western countries insist on providing Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets produced in the United States, Russia will take response measures based on specific needs. From the perspective of future development, the increase in military aid to Ukraine by the United States and Western countries will have an important impact on the future direction of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and may even trigger greater regional tensions, which requires careful response by all parties.
However, we must also realize that the United States’ agreement to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine this time is more of a gesture, and its impact on the current situation on the entire Russian-Ukrainian battlefield is very limited. .
On the one hand, because the export price of F-16 fighter jets is relatively expensive, whether it is the United States or European countries that have threatened to provide assistance to Ukraine, even if they do provide assistance, the quantity will not be too large. Facing the Russian military The large number of advanced fighters such as the Su-35 and Su-30SM installed in the fleet is obviously a drop in the bucket and will not fundamentally change the current reality in which Russia already has an overwhelming advantage. On the other hand, the Ukrainian army has been using weapons and equipment left over from the Soviet era. For example, the air force is mainly equipped with Sukhoi or MiG series fighter jets. The logistics support system is completely different from that of the West.
Without a complete logistics maintenance and support system, weapons and equipment will definitely not be able to perform as they should. In addition, Ukrainian pilots also flew Soviet-made fighters before the war.
If he is suddenly asked to fly a US-made fighter jet, he will have to start learning again, and it will take at least four or five months from the beginning to master the driving skills of the F-16 fighter jet. By then, the situation between Russia and Ukraine will have already Big changes have taken place. Therefore, under the constraints of these factors, the United States' agreement to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine this time will not be of great practical value.