By INTEL-DROP April 27, 2023

Ukraine lost over 400 military and mercenaries, and 14 equipment units in the Donetsk direction in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

“More than 400 Ukrainian servicemen and mercenaries, two infantry fighting vehicles, six armored fighting vehicles, four cars, D-20 and D-30 howitzers, as well as a self-propelled artillery installation “Gvozdika” were destroyed. In addition… a US-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar was destroyed,” the ministry said.

Assault detachments continued to destroy units of the enemy in the western part of Artemovsk, taking control of four more districts in the northwestern, western, and southwestern parts of the city.

Moscow started a special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022 after the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk asked for help in protecting their citizens against increased attacks from Ukraine.

American F-16s 'Might Not Last Very Long' if Delivered to Ukraine - 13 hours ago

CC0 / TSGT KEVIN J. GRUENWALD, USAF

Amid the Kyiv regime’s clamor for more weapons deliveries from the West, particularly fighter jets, in February, US President Joe Biden said the F-16 jets Ukraine was seeking was off the table "for now."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 airstrips – 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 Kyiv 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 Kyiv’s airpower "doesn't pose a massive threat," Bronk clarified, should work begin there to accommodate Western-made fighter jets then that approach would 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 Kyiv 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 Kyiv some older MiG-29s that Ukrainian pilots and mechanics are familiar with.

Military

Poland's Transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine Does Not Change US Stance on F-16s: White House

16 March, 18:53 GMT

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's main battle tanks in January 2023, some top Kyiv 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 that they sent to Biden on February 16.

Analysis

Scott Ritter: Pentagon Leaks Show That Ukraine Can’t Win

13 April, 16:00 GMT

Nevertheless, US President Joe Biden had repeatedly ruled out sending F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv. 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 airfields 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.

Analysis

F-16 Fighters: US and NATO Getting Bogged Down in Ukraine Conflict

7 March, 18:31 GMT

Russia has repeatedly warned that the US and its allies’ military aid to Kyiv is only prolonging the Ukrainian conflict. The Russian Foreign Ministry underscored that NATO countries “play with fire" by supplying weapons to Kyiv and that any convoy of arms for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russian forces.

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