The United States will head up a coalition of nations working with Ukraine to develop its air power, with a focus on developing compatibility with F-16 fighters, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin has announced.
"I'm proud to announce that the US will step up again to help lead the coalition of countries working with Ukraine to help develop its Air Force. By leading this capability coalition, the US will coordinate closely with Ukraine and other partners with a focus on developing Ukraine's F-16 fighter aircraft capability," Austin told reporters at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
"I'm pleased that Denmark and the Netherlands will be co-leading this coalition together with us," he added.
The earliest point by which Ukraine can expect to receive its initial F-16 capability will be "next spring," according to the Pentagon chief.
"Today we also talked about helping Ukraine to defend itself for the long haul, and to deter aggression for decades to come. So members of this contact group are organizing into what we call capability coalitions," Austin said. "That's gonna make our security assistance more nimble, and help to secure Ukraine's future," he assured.
Estonia and Luxembourg, for example, will be tasked with leading the coalition helping Ukraine to strengthen its IT infrastructure, while Lithuania will be charged with assisting Kiev in demining operations, the Pentagon chief said.
Touching on the possible delivery of long-range ATACMS missiles, Austin said he had no announcement to make on the matter.
"As Ukraine's troops face this key moment on the battlefield, we must ensure that America's indispensable assistance to Ukraine continues to flow without disruption," Austin added, saying that to date, the US has committed nearly $44 billion in military assistance, including the latest aid package of $200 million announced Wednesday. Austin counted an additional $33 billion+ in security assistance from Washington's allies.
"In fact, the three biggest European donors to Ukraine - Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland, have all committed more than the United States as a percentage of GDP. And so have many other European countries, including Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and all three of the Baltic states," Austin said.
Austin's remarks, made in the course of a two-day NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels, come amid an increasingly persistent effort by a small group of Congressional Republicans to halt further aid to Kiev, or to at least prevent assistance packages from being voted on together with other key legislation, such as the budget, or US money for Taiwan or Israel.
NATO countries' plans to provide Ukraine with over 70 F-16 fighter jets have prompted the Russian military to prepare for the warplanes' arrival in various ways, including by increasing the fielding of air defense systems like the S-300, S-400 and Buk missile systems, which are designed specifically to target this type of NATO warplane. Last week, an informed source told Sputnik that Russia's electronic warfare systems are also being optimized "to suppress radars and onboard equipment of NATO F-16 fighters."
The United States and Denmark are currently training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s. This summer, US Air Forces Europe commander James B. Heckler warned that building up Ukrainian pilots' proficiency to fly F-16s could take "four or five years," and said that while the jets might "help a little bit," they won't be the "silver bullet" Kiev may be hoping for on the battlefield.