Top US Air Force officials expect Ukraine to switch to Western military aircraft
The United States and its allies are constantly looking for ways to strengthen the Ukrainian air force, including possible pilot training before potentially supplying Western warplanes with Kyiv, two senior U.S. military officials announced at the annual Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Wednesday.
“You want to build a long-term plan for how you build their Air Force and the Air Force that they’re going to need for the future,” said U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown.
“There are a number of different platforms that could go to Ukraine… It’s going to be something non-Russian, I can tell you that,” Brown said. “But I can’t tell you exactly what it will be.”
The general did not reveal any concrete plans to send jets to Ukraine, but only speculated that all alternatives were on the table, including US-made planes, as well as Swedish Gripens, Eurofighter Typhoons and French Rafales.
READ MORE: Diversity of Western weapons creating problems for Ukraine? media
Brown separately mentioned a potential pilot retraining program in one interview with Reuters earlier in the day and said the transition from Soviet aircraft could be “a little” difficult. But he felt “pretty sure that there are some of our NATO partners who have done it, who may actually have lessons they learned that can be helpful to the Ukrainians in helping them figure out how to do it best. that transition. “
Meanwhile, US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who spoke at the same security conference that the US military is trying resign the iconic A-10 Warthog ground attack plan, was asked directly by – “Why do not we give these A-10s to Ukraine?”
“General Brown raised that question this morning about which warfighters Ukraine might be interested in. It’s largely up to Ukraine… Legacy US systems are a possibility,” Kendall replied without directly dismissing the idea.
“We will be open to discussions with them on what their requirements are and how we can satisfy them,” he added.
Kyiv has for months appealed for deliveries of modern air defenses and fighter jets, but the United States and its allies say they are concerned that Moscow could perceive the delivery of such weapons as a declaration of war. The Pentagon even rejected a request from NATO ally Poland that the US facilitate a transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine via a US military base in Germany. However, President Joe Biden’s administration insists that countries in the region are still free to provide military flights to Ukraine, if they so choose.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the Donetsk and Lugansk regions special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, mediated by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since acknowledged that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces”.
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kyiv insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
(RT.com)
Source: sn.dk