There are fans in the Pentagon of sending warplanes to Ukraine.
This was reported by Politico, in the analysis of publications of the American press about military assistance to Ukraine.
One of the main obstacles in the long struggle to supply Ukraine with Western-made tanks – especially Abrams – was the resistance of the American military establishment. As for the supply of combat aircraft, which Kyiv has identified as the next target of its lobbying efforts, the attitude in the Pentagon is not so unambiguously negative, this idea has influential fans in the department, writes Politico, based on the stories of three anonymous sources.
I don’t think we are against it,” one US Department of Defense official was quoted as saying.
First of all, we can talk about deliveries of fourth-generation fighters – the F-16 and its analogues, such as the Tornado or the Swedish Gripen, since many Western countries plan to replace them with the new F-22 and F-35 in the coming years.
One of the reasons is that in Western military doctrine, aircraft are also given an important place in air defense – they are capable of destroying missiles and drones in flight – due to relatively few ground-based anti-aircraft missile systems and ammunition for them in Western countries.
The Pentagon is worried that even with the supply of Western systems, Ukrainian air defense capabilities may eventually dry up. F-16 or their equivalents could solve this problem.
Neither the Pentagon nor the European allies believe that this could be perceived as an escalation in Russia.
Let’s face it: there will be no nuclear war over the F-16, one of his sources quotes Politico.
The White House declined to directly answer Politico’s question about the possibility of transferring combat aircraft to Ukraine, but pointed to statements by Deputy National Security Adviser John Finer last Thursday. He said fighter deliveries are being discussed with Ukraine and that “we are not ruling out any specific system.”
Source: Racurs
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