Ukraine is pinning its hopes solely on F-16 Fighting Falcons because it simply does not have the capacity to service a wider variety of foreign aircraft, Ukrainian Air Force Command spokesman Yuri Ignat has admitted.
“We will not be able to put many different types of aircraft into service, maintain them, train pilots for them. This would be a somewhat difficult matter for us. Therefore, we need to focus on goal number one – the F-16,” Ignat said in an appearance on Ukrainian television on Monday.
Even with the F-16, adapting Ukraine’s mostly Soviet-era air force infrastructure is no easy matter, Ignat said, noting that really thoroughly preparing to take delivery of the jets would take “years.”
“Infrastructure readiness is a difficult concept, because it takes years to thoroughly prepare. It would be ideal to hide the aircraft underground like Iran does, to build reinforced concrete storage facilities resistant to ballistic missiles,” the spokesman said.
Instead, Kiev will have to make do with “passive defenses” including above-ground storage facilities and infrastructure, and air defense systems meant to protect against Russian cruise missiles and drones.
“We are already adapting our infrastructure for this type of aircraft. Adaptation is key to allowing them to carry out missions from our runways and keep them on our airfields. Therefore, we can’t talk about timing. The issue is that we need this plane as soon as possible,” Ignat stressed.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas announced Sunday at the Munich Security Conference that Ukraine should receive its first F-16s by June. Ignat could not confirm this information.
“The only thing I can confirm is that there is an action plan, and that it is being implemented. Our partners are ready to transfer the planes to Ukraine…Of course, we’re talking not only about the transfer, but also further maintenance, financing this process, the modernization of the F-16. Because aircraft are constantly being repaired and modernized. The countries transferring aircraft to us of course also contribute to the training of pilots, engineers, officers, ground personnel and others. Because their training needs to be paid for too,” the official said.
Ignat’s latest comments follow on remarks he made last week indicating that Ukraine is holding off on accepting F-16s before “everything is ready” because the military realizes that they would immediately become a “tasty target” for Russia once they arrive. He added that adapting infrastructure for the planes is difficult because the F-16 is “a more demanding aircraft” than Ukraine’s stocks of Soviet aircraft.
Kiev expects to receive more than 60 early-model F-16 jets from the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway between 2024 and 2025.
Russia’s air defense systems were designed specifically to protect against NATO aircraft like the F-16, and over the past two years have been adapted to handle even more complex threats, including the Western bloc’s newest ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, which Kiev frequently uses to target civilian settlements in the Donbass and elsewhere along the front.
Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu warned in November that Russia would start destroying Ukraine’s F-16s as soon as they begin arriving, saying that the initial number of planes Ukraine is getting constitutes about “20 days of work” for Russia’s air defense troops. Separately, defense sources have told Sputnik that Russia is fine-tuning its electronic warfare capabilities to suppress the jets’ onboard systems.