Disse flyene vil bli Pri 1 targets for Putin. Det skal bli interessant å se hvordan de kommer til å fungere i et område med ekstrem trussel. Som du har lest før vil Norge sende 6 fly til Zelenskyj. (Red.)
Ukraine will be flying donated F-16s ‘this
summer,’ Austin says
By
SVETLANA SHKOLNIKOVA
STARS AND STRIPES • July
10, 2024
A
Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft takes off over Bodo,
Norway, in October 2018 during Exercise. (Bryan Carter/Allied Joint Force
Command Naples)
WASHINGTON —
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that Ukraine will be flying F-16s
“this summer” following the delivery of the long-awaited fighter jets by the
Netherlands and Denmark.
The announcement
came on the second day of the NATO summit in Washington, where world leaders
are gathering to mark the landmark 75th anniversary of the military alliance
and bolster support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
President Joe
Biden, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen
said in a joint statement Wednesday that the process of transferring the
American-made fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands is underway.
Additional
aircraft will be provided later by Belgium and Norway, according to the
statement. It is unclear how many operational F-16s each country is donating.
“We are unable to
provide additional details at this time due to operational security concerns,”
the leaders stated.
Austin praised the
transfer at the NATO Public Forum, an event running parallel to the summit, and
said a coalition of countries has been “working tirelessly” to round up
operational F-16s for Ukraine.
Denmark and the
Netherlands pledged last year to send about 60 of the fighter jets but were
awaiting permission from the United States. The U.S. began training Ukrainian
pilots to fly F-16s in the fall in preparation for the transfer.
Ukraine has long
requested the aircraft, which entered U.S. military service in the late 1970s
and is used by numerous countries in the NATO alliance.
The U.S. has not
offered to send its own F-16s, and the Biden administration had initially
hesitated to send the war plane because Ukraine already had a fleet of
Soviet-era fighters with which they were more familiar.
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