The United States plans to train Ukrainian pilots
Earlier journalist Ostap Yarysh tweeted that the U.S. House of Representatives had passed a $840 billion defense policy bill.
Read also: UK urges allies to supply Ukraine with fighter jets
According to the journalist, part of this amount should go to training Ukrainian pilots.
Read also: NATO states informally agree not to supply fighters, tanks to Ukraine — Die Zeit
"The United States plans to train Ukrainian pilots on the F-15 and F-16 fighter jets," he said.
Read also: Ukrainian jet fighter downs Russian Su-35 over Kherson
"This amendment to the U.S. Fiscal Year 2023 Defense Funding Bill was supported by the House of Representatives. A total of $100 million is planned to be allocated for this."
In turn, political scientist and publicist Andrei Piontkovsky believes that this is an indirect confirmation that Ukraine will get U.S. fighter jets as military aid to defend against Russia, however, it is still difficult to say when exactly this may happen.
UtahCyan on July 16th, 2022 at 01:01 UTC »
F-15 finally gets it's dream of attacking Russians directly.
trekie88 on July 16th, 2022 at 00:21 UTC »
Poland should be invited into the training program. Their experience with migrating pilots from MIG-29s to F-16s would be invaluable.
HipHobbes on July 16th, 2022 at 00:20 UTC »
Ukraine will need replacement systems for almost all their Soviet-era equipment eventually. Russia sure won't sell them anything. The F-16 is the logical replacement for their aging Mig-29s. It's tried and tested technology (which received some nifty upgrades over the years) which is well-suited for Ukraine's current needs. They don't need some deep-strike stealth jet. They need something reliable to protect their own air space. Maybe training pilots will take a while but waiting until all their MiG-29s are either shot down or simply won't fly due to lack of spare parts might not be the prudent thing to do. Maybe the won't get F-16s but it's good thinking to at least have the option rather than being out of options.