David on rummuttanut tätä jo pitempään:
Hänen näkemys on, että Venäjällä ei ole enää reservejä etelässä.
Toisaalla:
“Mr. Zelensky appears driven to get as many of the F-16s as possible delivered before elections in Europe and the United States, which could bring a change of heart in the governments that have promised the planes.”
“The Biden administration has signaled to Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands that it will allow the transfers, but a new president could reverse those case-by-case agreements if delivery has not yet been completed, according to a U.S. official.”
“A former senior U.S. Air Force officer said it takes between 8 to 14 support personnel to maintain, fuel and support each F-16, depending on how many bases the jets operate from”
“One U.S. adviser said Ukraine will probably deploy the initial F-16s as soon as the pilots are certified to fly, in a range of defensive and offensive combat missions. Given the advanced weapons the F-16s will carry, just having them deployed, even in a niche capacity, could force Russia to dedicate valuable resources to monitor and counter them, the adviser said.”
As effective as it is, the F-16 demands much more maintenance than the average Soviet-era fighter, and that would be as challenging for the Ukrainians as flying the platform.
Cancian told CNN that F-16s need 16 hours of maintenance per flight hour. At a cost of nearly $27,000 per flight hour, it is also expensive to fly.
“There are tens of thousands of parts on an F-16,” Cancian said, “and that pipeline has to go into Ukraine, so when the plane lands and you taxi it into the hangar and you have to go fix something, the part is on hand.”
Toisaalla:
