Earlier, the US Department of Defense announced that it has no objections to the supply of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine from other countries. In turn, Kyiv hopes to receive up to 50 F-16 fighters from the West.
For some, this news was the news of the day. But we have already said that the Americans and their allies have been training Ukrainian pilots on their F-16s for several months.
They named the size of this group and explained: the question of the transfer of fighters to Ukraine is the business of the next few months.
Judging by the facts, the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine has moved from the notification system to “after the fact” delivery.
This is when a weapon is transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine without any prior notification, exposing its presence in fact only at the time of its use.
By the way, it was with the British Storm Shadow cruise missiles, the first use of which took place just a day after the announcement of their transfer to Kyiv.
At the same time, it is obvious that the modernization of Ukrainian aircraft for the use of these missiles took several months, including real tests of the modernized bombers on Polish training grounds.
Not to mention the training of flight crews in their use, and ground specialists in missile maintenance and their preparation for use.
According to our information, the Ukrainians and the British started this program in November last year.
And when the Poles, the British and the Americans recently declared that they had no intention of transferring F-16 general-purpose fighters to Ukraine, they were, to say the least, dishonest. Or, more simply, they lied.
The first group of 12 Ukrainian pilots arrived in the United States at an air base in Arizona, where they began studying the F-16 aircraft in January 2023. In April, this was officially recognized.
At the same time, a group of ground specialists from the Ukrainian Armed Forces began training in the maintenance of the F-16 at air bases in Poland and the Netherlands.
Another group of pilots (12 people) left for Britain, where, according to local audiences, they are already carrying out training flights on British F-16s.
It is assumed that in August the total number of retrained pilots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should reach 24 people.
And in the fall it will exceed 40.
Therefore, there is no doubt that all decisions regarding the transfer of Western aircraft to Ukraine have long been made.
And now the United States and NATO are just trying to achieve the element of surprise when they are used in the area of our special military operation.
Prepared by Yuri Gavrilov
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