Originally Posted by
petit plateau
There is a lot of blame to go around. We all need to do better. That is my general sentiment. Clearly something is getting lost in translation.
Yes.
Interesting observation here ...
Earlier this April, an anonymous Ukrainian senior military officer told Politico that "F-16s were needed in 2023; they won't be right for 2024," while experts have told
Newsweek that the promised number may be too small to make a strategic difference across the entire front line.
"A single system can't change the situation on the battlefield,"
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told German newspaper
Bild earlier this month. "This isn't a silver bullet that could change the course of the war."
But as Ukraine's artillery shortage intensifies, allowing Russian mechanized forces to ramp up tactical gains, while degraded air defense capabilities permit Russian aviation to penetrate deeper into Ukrainian held territory, F-16s could provide much-needed (if limited) relief.
While that source was at least partly right, in terms of timeliness, he had neither the trained ground crews, the trained pilots, nor the logistics in place to have the F-16's do what the UKAF MiGs had been doing: fight to their full effectiveness. But the Vipers are coming, which is good news.