CNN: US working to supply fighter jets to Ukraine, via Poland

[steve...]

I’m assuming Ukraine has functioning/safe air bases to operate out of. Is that how new weapons are getting into the country?

[Lemon Drop]

Rolando wrote:
Poland is already sending their Mig29s to Ukraine. The F16s are replacing those. Maybe they are sending even more.

Poland is not currently supplying its Russian made jets to Ukraine and so far they are reluctant to do so. The White House is trying to entice them with new hardware.


"The Biden administration is discussing how to supply Polish Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine, American officials say, after President Volodymyr Zelensky made a passionate plea to American legislators on Saturday for assistance in obtaining more lethal military aid, especially Russian-made jets that Ukrainian pilots know how to fly.

The White House said a deal with Poland was being discussed that would replace Poland’s planes with American F-16s, but Polish officials seemed less than enthusiastic. After President Andrzej Duda said last week that Poland would not supply planes, the office of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Twitter on Sunday: “Poland won’t send its fighter jets to #Ukraine as well as allow to use its airports. We significantly help in many areas.”

A jet-supply arrangement would require congressional approval and is being discussed with other NATO countries. But any such supply would be a sovereign decision of the country involved, not a NATO decision, because NATO wants to avoid any direct conflict with the Russian military in Ukraine or over its airspace."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/world...raine.html

[Lemon Drop]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
Sending planes is mostly symbolic if there isn't some sort of capability to destroy/suppress S-400 surface-to-air systems. 17 mile long convoy's don't have to worry too much about an A10 wiping them out if there are enough modern antiaircraft systems nearby.

Taking away Putin's Tae Kwan Do title is symbolic.

Fighter jets can help you fight, maybe even win.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Ukraine had an ace that was almost single-handedly fighting the air war by flying ultra low, using hills and buildings for cover. He was shot down by an S-400 system. Unless they can put up enough planes and/or drones to overwhelm the systems and blow all of them up, nothing will fly for long.

[RgrF]

The Domino Theory abides1