Milley: “F-16s are not the miracle weapon”. Crosetto on pilots: "we can't train them in Italy because we don't have the F-16".
The F-16 fighters that have been promised to Ukraine are not the "miracle weapon". The head of the American Joint Staff said it, Mark milley, speaking remotely at a meeting of the international group that coordinates military aid to Ukraine.
"Sometimes things get labeled, they say 'it will be the magic weapon'Milley said speaking at the meeting Defense Contact Group for Ukraine, adding that however “there are no magical weapons, no F-16s or other weapons.”
Meanwhile, a London government source told Foreign Policy that around twenty Ukrainian pilots will begin training for the F-16 in Great Britain. “It will be basic ground training for Ukrainian pilots who will then be ready for more specific training for the F-16s."a spokesman said.
"There is no Italian training program because there are no F-16s in Italy", the Defense Minister reiterated, Guido Crosetto, on the sidelines of the Trento Festival of Economics.
General Milley also said the United States is fully in favor of a group of NATO allies taking the lead in the training and potential transfer of jets to Kiev. A kind way to withdraw from the initiative and avoid direct American involvement after the events of Belgorod, where the Ukrainians allegedly handed over US arms and vehicles to the Russian revolutionaries.
Will there be an operational breakthrough with the F16?
Milley on the operational breakthrough said: “The Russians have 1.000 fourth generation fighters. If you're going to challenge Russia in the air, you're going to need a significant amount of fourth and fifth generation fighters, so if you look at the cost curve and do the analysis, the smart thing to do is exactly what we've done, that is, to provide a significant amount of integrated air defenses to cover the battlespace and deny the Russians airspace.”
A concept also expressed by the general of the Italian air force Pasquale Preziosa, former head of the armed force: “To conduct air operations in these heavily defended areas it is necessary to have latest generation means (5th generation) capable of penetrating the enemy defenses with low operational risk. The use of 16th generation F 4 aircraft in the Ukrainian theater will have to consider this scenario because the operational level of risk will not be low and will require extensive deployment of electronic warfare packages to support air campaigns.
The use of the air forces will raise the costs of the confrontation and it is difficult to evaluate the effects on an operational level today because it will be necessary to evaluate the Russian response to this western initiative".
Even the Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall claimed that the jets “They won't radically change the rules of the game” for Ukraine, even if “it's something that makes sense to them. It will help them in the long run."
“Fighter jets are far more expensive than artillery shells and ground vehicles, which the Western allies have given to Ukraine. Those weapons are worth spending money on in the short term, as opposed to expensive warplanes with their complex logistical needs." Milley said.
"If you look at F-16s, 10 F-16s cost a billion dollars, upkeep costs another billion dollars, so you're talking $2 billion for 10 aircraftMilley said, adding that if the planes had been sent sooner, they would have gobbled up funding for those other capabilities that have put Ukraine at the forefront.
F16s are only for Kyev's narrative. The fourth-generation fighters will serve to support Ukraine's planned counter-offensive by increasing air defense capabilities. With just over 50 aircraft? This is the number Zelensky requested.
Then there is the node on the European country which will have to supply the F16s and guarantee the supply of the logistics chain, in the face of the announced coalition which is still unable to take off.
Most likely the Westerners are slowing down the initiative after the Belgorod events. They begin to no longer trust the Ukrainians who had promised not to carry out attacks on Russian territory with Western means and weapons.
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