19fortyfive urged to start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighters

American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Senior Fellow Michael Rubin in his column for publications 19fortyfive.com urged to start training Ukrainian pilots on flights on F-16 fighters.

Rubin writes that in the short term Ukraine needs tanks, but in the long term it will need jet fighters. In his opinion, unlike tanks, it is impossible to learn how to fly aircraft under a reduced program, so you need to start today.

The analyst noted that so far, US President Joe Biden has not approved sending F-16s to Ukraine. However, according to Rubin, Washington should not consider sending fighter jets and training Ukrainian pilots as mutually exclusive.

Rubin suggests that if Ukrainian pilots begin training this month, they will be able to independently operate the F-16 by the summer of 2024. Thus, the author believes, the decision will not be on the table. And if we wait for Biden or his successor to give the green light, then Ukraine and its allies will have to endure a two-year delay.

Of course, Biden may never decide to provide F-16s to Ukraine, but if Ukrainian pilots are trained, the United States has little to lose, Rubin concludes.

Recall that earlier Moscow has repeatedly warned the West about the consequences of pumping Ukraine with weapons. As Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s first deputy representative to the UN Security Council, said in December at a meeting of the UN Security Council: “In this blindness and deafness, the West is continuing a course that could lead to consequences on a global scale.”