US will arm Ukraine’s F-16 jet fighters with advanced weapons

The Biden administration says it will provide missiles and bombs for the American-made aircraft.

A US-made F16 aircraft prepares for take off. Picture: AFP

The US has agreed to arm dozens of F-16 jet fighters being sent to Ukraine with American-made missiles and other advanced weapons, addressing a longstanding question about the Western aircraft.

Denmark and The Netherlands are preparing to send the first US-made F-16s to Ukraine this northern summer, and more will come later from Belgium and Norway. Until now, the source of critical weapons for the planes had been unresolved.

Though the Pentagon has limited inventory and production capability, it will supply the F-16s with air-to-ground munitions, precision-guidance kits for bombs and advanced air-to-air missiles in sufficient quantities to meet Ukraine’s most urgent needs, a senior US official said.

“We are confident that we will be able to supply all of those, at least the critical volumes that they need,” the US official said.

The F-16 is one of the highest-profile pieces of equipment the West has offered Ukraine as it seeks to turn the tide in a war that has been reduced to incremental battlefield gains. Both the Ukrainians and countries donating the aircraft say the F-16s will bolster Kyiv’s military forces, but acknowledge the challenges that lie ahead in training enough ­pilots, maintaining the aircraft and determining how best to use them.

“It’s an important addition,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. “It’s not in itself changing the war.”

The weapons for the F-16s the US is sending include AGM-88 HARM air-to-ground missiles; the extended-range versions of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which convert unguided bombs to smart weapons; and so-called small diameter bombs that explode with a tight blast radius.

In addition, the US will send advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, known as ­AMRAAM, and AIM-9X short-range air-to-air missiles for the jets.

“The aircraft itself is worthless without the weapons,” said Major General Rolf Folland, chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force.

In Europe, many countries were reluctant to send large amounts of their limited inventory of air-launched munitions to Kyiv, so the allies came up with a solution that the Pentagon has dubbed “jumpstart”. European countries can pool their finances to buy air-launched weapons from the US to send to Ukraine, the US official said.

Arming the F-16s is just one of many challenges facing the Ukrainians when they receive the aircraft. The aircraft, which will eventually number around 80, won’t be delivered all at once. Denmark’s, for instance, will come in stages over eight months. The US and allies have declined to provide specific timelines for the planes and their weapons because of security concerns.

Ukrainian officials have expressed gratitude to allies for providing the jets, but have complained privately that their arrival, like much Western aid, comes too late, in too small a number and with too many restrictions to alter the war substantially. Once the jets arrive, the next hurdle will be to ensure there are enough pilots and maintainers to operate them.

A senior Western intelligence official said the F-16s would likely take some time to integrate into Ukraine’s armed forces, and it may be months before they have a noticeable impact on the battlefield. “The first thing I would be worried about if I were the Russians would be battlefield helicopters and things like that,” the official said.

Ukraine wants to use them to fly to the border and shoot into Russia, but that tactic isn’t ­realistic in the current environment, the US official said, because of the threat from Russian ­surface-to-air missiles.

US officials say the most effective use of the F-16s in Ukraine is close-air support, or taking out ground threats to troops on the frontlines. Europeans, on the other hand, say the F-16s can be used for air defence and to potentially help push Moscow’s air force farther from the frontline, where its aircraft are releasing thousands of glide bombs each month to devastating effect.

“It will not be a silver bullet,” said Norway’s General Folland.

“But if you have F-16s with long range weapons, you will push the Russian air force further away and that is the most important thing.”

The Wall Street Journal