An unspecified number of Western F-16 multirole fighters have arrived in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.
Bloomberg, citing sources “familiar with the matter, who spoke under condition of anonymity,” said the number of fighters transferred is small, and the delivery made it just in time before the set deadline, which was the end of July.
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A spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense declined Bloomberg’s requests for comments.
During the Washington NATO Summit on July 9-11, US State Secretary Antony Blinken announced that The Netherlands and Denmark had already started the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine, where they are expected to be operational “this summer.”
Previously, the Netherlands said Ukraine would receive the F-16 fighters it donated “in the near future,” with a Dutch defense official stating that the initial batch of F-16s would likely focus on air defense rather than striking ground targets.
The F-16s being sent to Ukraine would likely be equipped with advanced US weapons such as AGM-88 HARM air-to-surface missiles, JDAM extended-range guided bombs and GLSDB small-sized precision munitions, as reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
While it’s believed that F-16s, with advanced Western avionics compared to Ukraine’s aging fleet inherited from the USSR, can give Ukraine a better chance against the more advanced Russian air fleet, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine needs at least 128 F-16s to effectively counter Russia’s air superiority.
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Meanwhile, pilot numbers and the ability to protect the Ukrainian airfields likely to be used to house the new aircraft continue to be subject to challenges, including vulnerability to Russian long-range missile strikes, that Ukraine needs to tackle to effectively utilize the new capability the F-16s will bring.
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