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First F-16 fighter jets arrive in Ukraine, officials say
BERLIN – Ukraine has received its first collection of F-16 combat jets, Lithuania’s foreign minister and several officials confirmed on Wednesday.
The jets have been long anticipated, with discussions about providing the fighters to Kyiv dating back to the early days of the February 2022 Russian invasion of its smaller neighbor.
“F-16s in Ukraine. Another impossible thing turned out to be totally possible,” Vilnius’ Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on X.
The Associated Press and Reuters cited unnamed U.S. and Ukrainian officials who confirmed the delivery of the first jets. Publicly, Ukraine and its supporters are keeping tight-lipped; a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would neither confirm nor deny that Ukraine has received F-16s, NPR reported on Thursday.
I'm split on this. On one hand (I think it's a good idea).
Every NATO country has picked this aircraft up. It's great for our economy. We also know they're easier to fly than the old Soviet MiGs. They're lighter, their thrust to weight ratio is better, and they're an all-around bad ass all weather aircraft. We're also starting to work them out of our inventory.
Another issue is that maybe we could use another country to help take away one of our fronts (see below). Nothing bad in that.
On the other hand. Does this draw us in to another endless war. The Ukranian government is fairly well known to be almost soviet in their mannerisms. Meaning bribery, graft, and corruption are very common. That's a problem. I will say they're not nearly as bad as the Turks, and don't hate us as much.
If we're not really, really careful, we'll be fighting a three front global war we're not prepared for. For over three years, our military has worried more about being woke than their reason for existence. With the exceptions of the Marines. They refused to go woke because of the complete breakdown of the chain of command. They're not wrong. So we have one CORPS (~180,000 active-duty personnel) of Marines (an offshoot of a single department whose job isn't to fight on land). Granted, "your best friend, your worst enemy" is a true statement. If unleashed, they are fierce. And bloody. But they can't stand up to the 2-million-member Chinese Military (and they claim 3 million reservists).
I just thought I'd throw this out. I saw it on my dailies.
