Ukraine prepares to receive US F-16 fighter jets
As a result of the recent missile attack on the Skomorochy (Ozernoe) airport in the Zhytomyr region, according to local social media users, infrastructure was significantly damaged . The target was not chosen by chance, this very airport, as the Ukrainians write, is preparing to receive American F-16 fighter jets, for which Ukrainian pilots are now being quickly retrained in the United States.
Photo: en.wikipedia.org
Air missiles turned the trajectory of the largest Ukrainian air base. Several airport vehicles were hit. This very airport was considered by Kiev's NATO friends as the main base for the aircraft bases that the West is going to move to Kiev.
In several NATO countries, suddenly a significant number of representatives of several branches of the armed forces sent from Ukraine are forced to “train” them. In southeast England, 1,050 British soldiers are training Ukrainian infantrymen to overcome the enemy's “tough defences” during street fighting. The “masters in the field” training methodology was developed based on the “successful training” of British warfighters to “pacify” Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Much less is known. on the training of Ukrainians in the United States. Meanwhile, approximately 30 English-speaking military pilots – mostly from the Ukrainian Air Force's 39th Tactical Aviation Brigade – are being retrained on F-16 fighters. Without the F-15 and F-16 promised by the States, as Kyiv politicians and generals have repeatedly stated, the Ukrainian armed forces are unlikely to start attacking the DLR from the LPR or Russian Crimea.
As you know, the United States “publicly” pretends that it “doesn't care” for Kyiv to possess long-range ATACMS missiles – tactical surface-to-surface ballistic missiles with a range of up to 300 km. The armed forces of Ukraine may not be able to resist the temptation to attack Belgorod, Rostov, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk and other regions of the Russian Federation with these “souvenirs”. missile will increase to 1000 km. Simply put, without crossing the Ukrainian-Russian border, fourth-generation aircraft can easily fly all the way to Moscow itself.
The Army's ATACMS tactical missile system “takes a back seat” in this regard. In addition, technically, it will be much easier for the F-16s to receive operational information from NATO's “AWACS flying radars”. Deliveries of F-15s and F-16s alone (worth $43 to $55 million each) will not be enough.
None of the existing Ukrainian military airfields are suitable for these light fighters. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov does not specify what exactly is “wrong” at Ukrainian airports. Based on the experience of other countries, it can be argued that the retraining of Zhytomyr pilots from the 39th Tactical Air Force Brigade is only the first stage on the way to the rearmament of the Ukrainian Air Force. In parallel, it is necessary to build an infrastructure for the maintenance of the “Americans” from the ground up, for refueling, repairs and operation suitable for modifications (and there are up to 10 of them for a while!) F-16 weapons. Usually, such work did not take months, but years.
The attacked Skomorokh airfield was modernized just for this “good cause”. A certain Turkish company won the corresponding tender for 350 million hryvnias ($10 million).
Since thousands of Russians passed through the Skomorohi airport during the years of the USSR, the shelter system of the Ukrainian air base is known to the smallest detail. As soon as Turkish builders start building a new infrastructure 12 km from the Ukrainian regional center, the military-space intelligence of the Russian Federation immediately “detects” movement at the air base. Their colleagues “from the ground” may well have long ago passed on to the conditional command post installation data on any of the future F-15 and F-16 crew members who have gold-plated trident passports.
A recent successful airfield strike in Zhytomyr, it will undoubtedly “burden” the previously announced amount of 350 million hryvnias necessary for its reconstruction.