If Kiev were ever to finally get the American F-16 fighter jets they "might not last very long", air-warfare analyst for the UK’s Royal United Service Institute (RUSI) think tank Justin Bronk believes.
Also dubbed the Fighting Falcon, General Dynamics’ F-16 multirole fighter aircraft requires specially prepared airbases and air strips – something that Ukraine would need to work on. Most Ukrainian airfields are "too short" and "austere" to allow for safe utilization by a fully loaded F-16, Bronk said, cited by the Geopolitics Decanted podcast.
"You would have to do a lot of work to get those Ukrainian, old Soviet-pattern runways to a clean enough state to use an F-16 without high risk of foreign object debris going in and damaging the engines," he said.
There are several reasons why the F-16 jets require particular airfields. First of all, the F-16s have "fairly lightweight" landing gear, so that "there is no more weight on the jet than there needs to be." The compact and maneuverable multi-role fighter aircraft is distinguishable for its large air intake under the nose that "sucks everything from the ground directly into it,"continued the expert, adding that "F-16s typically require very clean, very well-maintained air bases."
Accordingly, if the US were to finally decide to hand over its F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, the Kiev authorities would be facing extensive work involving resurfacing the existing runways, extending the landing strips, etc.
But the fact of the matter is, all that maintenance and modification work could be "highly visible" to Russia's satellites. While Ukrainian airbases have not been targeted by Russia in the course of its special military operation so far because Kiev’s airpower "doesn't pose a massive threat," Bronk clarified, should work begin there to accommodate Western-made fighter jets then that approach woulkd change dramatically.
"All of Ukraine's airbases are within reach of Russia's ballistic and cruise missiles," the air-warfare analyst said on the podcast.
He summed up by saying that Russia's missiles would make light work of destroying any Ukrainian F-16 fleet.
Ever since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine last year, the Kiev regime has been incessantly demanding that besides the already vast quantities of weapons delivered to it, Western countries donate their fighter jets to replace the dwindling fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters.
Western countries have so far been reluctant to send jets, with the exception of NATO members Poland and Slovakia. These two pledged Kiev some older MiG-29s that Ukrainian pilots and mechanics are familiar with.
Previously, the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Executive Director Douglas Birkey was cited as saying that according to the recent ‘Pentagon leaks’, US intelligence assessments suggested that Ukraine was running low on surface-to-air missiles, and Russia was poised to gain air superiority.
In the aftermath of Berlin and Washington's pledge to provide the Ukrainian military with Leopard and Abrams main battle tanks in January 2023, some top Kiev officials started to call upon the Biden administration to go even further and send F-16 combat aircraft to Ukraine. Some US lawmakers, from both parties, joined those calls insisting that the American-made fighters “could prove decisive for control of Ukrainian airspace this year" in a letter which they sent to Biden on February 16.
Nevertheless, US President Joe Biden had repeatedly ruled out sending F-16 fighter jets to Kiev. Speaking to an American broadcaster on February 24, 2023, Biden said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "doesn't need F-16s now," adding that "there is no basis upon which there is a rationale" for doing this. At the same time, however, the US president made it clear that it does not mean "never."
A top-ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith, said in February that the panel has concluded that it would not be a wise use of resources to send F-16s to Ukraine.
"We have considered that request... We looked at that and we determined that it is not a wise use of the resources that are necessary to win the fight."
Smith also noted that it would take a considerable amount of time and cost a significant amount of money to even deliver F-16s to Ukraine, train pilots and mechanics, create air fields to accommodate the aircraft and supply the spare parts needed to keep them operating. The fourth-generation fighter jets would also "struggle to survive" on the battlefield against Russia, Smith said.
Russia has repeatedly warned that the US and its allies’ military aid to Kiev is only prolonging the Ukrainian conflict. The Russian Foreign Ministry underscored that NATO countries “play with fire" by supplying weapons to Kiev, and that any convoy of arms for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russian forces.