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WHY CAN’T NATO GIVE UKRAINE F-15S OR F-16S? IT’S ABOUT MORE THAN PILOT TRAINING

Alex Hollings | April 4, 2022

https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/why-cant-nato-give-ukraine-f-15s-or-f-16s-its-about-more-than-pilot-training/

The official Twitter account for the Air Force of Ukraine publicly requested that NATO provide them with Western fighter jets like the F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-15 Eagle to aid them in their fight against Russia last week. According to the social media statement, Ukraine’s Air Force sees securing these fighters as essential to the defense of their nation, as they offer advanced systems that are on par or superior to those of the Russian Air Force.

According to Ukraine, their pilots could be trained and ready to fly these American jets into combat after just two or three weeks of training, but the truth is, flying the F-15 or F-16 into the fight takes a whole lot more than a moderately trained pilot.

While it may not take long for these aviators to learn how to execute the fundamentals of flying in a new cockpit, combat is a test like few others. Even for American fighter pilots, who spend more time in their cockpits than pilots hailing from most other nations, survival in combat is never assured—let alone victory.

Unfortunately for Ukraine’s Air Force, this is one request that will very likely be denied.

Because Ukraine’s pilots are accustomed to the cockpits of Soviet-era fighters, it would take some real getting used to before they could effectively fly the F-16 or F-15 in combat. Ukraine claims they could make the transition in a matter of just two or three weeks, and while this seems extremely unlikely, it may be feasible given the nation’s difficult circumstances.

The Air Force actually already has a course designed to train existing fighter pilots to get behind the stick of an F-16 Fighting Falcon, and although these pilots are already accustomed to American fighters (as Ukrainian pilots would not be), the course still takes over six weeks.

It’s possible that Ukrainian pilots could considerably condense this training course, but the chances that they would leave their crash course with a high degree of competence in their new aircraft seems unlikely.

But importantly, Ukraine has never operated these aircraft, so simply landing a few of these jets on a Ukrainian airstrip and tossing them the keys wouldn’t be enough to actually fly these jets in combat.

In fact, getting the aircraft into Ukraine would probably be the easy part.

Ukraine would have to take F-15s and F-16s into Russia to win the skies

As we’ve already discussed regarding the establishment of a NATO-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine, advanced Russian air defense systems like the S-400 Triumpf have an operational range of around 250 miles. That means Ukrainian fighters would need to engage air defense systems inside Russia and potentially even Belarus in order to take control of their airspace (as multiple Ukrainian officials and pilots have championed as part of the request for these fighters). Otherwise, these air defense platforms could continue to shoot down Ukrainian jets that strayed too close to Russian territory.

But Russian air defense systems aren’t the biggest reason Ukraine would need to send its newly-gained F-15 and F-16 fleets into Russia—the biggest reason is that most Russian airstrikes are launched by aircraft that never leave Russian airspace.

Because Ukraine is located directly on Russia’s border, Russian forces have the ability to fly hundreds of sorties per day, launching missiles toward Ukrainian targets without ever actually flying across the border into Ukraine itself. Likewise, Russian integrated air defense systems rely heavily on airborne AWACS (airborne early warning and control systems) to extend their reach beyond the curvature of the earth.

Ukraine’s F-15s and F-16s tasked with stopping the onslaught of Russian airstrikes would have no choice but to fly into Russia to engage fighters, bombers, and AWACS supporting these airstrike operations.

This poses a problem for NATO nations who would be supplying Ukraine with not just the aircraft, but the training, equipment, and munitions needed to operate them. Ukrainian F-15s and F-16s entering Russian airspace would undoubtedly look less like the West was providing defensive support and more like it was equipping Ukraine to take an offensive into Russia.

This dramatically increases the likelihood of conflict expanding beyond Ukraine’s borders, as bringing the fight into Russia may prompt the Russian government to respond by engaging facilities and logistical supply lines that support Ukraine beyond its own borders, in places like Poland, in order to neutralize the threat posed by these American fighter aircraft.