The idea of Ukraine getting US designed older F-16s is a noneffective miscalculation by uniformed bureaucrats in Washington. Those orchestrating this ill fated plan have little knowledge of what really matters with our fourth generation fighter jets. Not all F-16s are created equal nor are as capable as people may think. The jets Ukraine is getting are older version F-16s and are no match for newer modern versions with advanced war fighting features.
The Royal Netherlands Air force (RNLAF) recently decided to graciously offer Ukraine a plethora of their slightly used F-16 fighter jets to stem the tide of evil Russian aggression. In this article, I will explain why doing this is not the magic bullet that will give Ukraine a decisive advantage against the Soviet Union. The difficulties in planning an aircraft transition to fully capable status is daunting in the little time needed to enter into the fight.
There was a point in my Air force career that my training unit was assigned to take on the Netherlands F-16 training school house in Springfield Ohio. Their F-16s were old A models that the US doesn’t fly anymore. Though they have upgrades with radar and other components, they could never compete against the least of the United States F-16 variants. In fact, Holland started selling many of their old aircraft to other countries as they converted to the F-35 because it is a much more capable aircraft.
The Royal Netherlands Air force still flies F-16s along side of the F-35s as their primary fighter aircraft. I was a maintainer In the Air force on fighter jets for 30 years 27 of those were on the F-16 aircraft and three years were on Netherlands MLU F-16s. Working on the Netherlands aircraft was like going back in time with circa the late 70s but with a few modern upgrades and modifications. These aircraft are much older A models that were enhanced after they were delivered to their countries of operation. Contrary to what we are being told, None of the planes were ever US property at any time. They were built for a few NATO countries in Europe by Fokker aircraft company.
On one parking ramp we kept the American F-16s with Monster growling GE engines and superior avionics and advanced capabilities operating at a high sortie tempo and on the other ramp were the Dutch planes that were constantly failing due to the age of the aircraft and other factors. The so called experts are overlooking critical logistics it will take to be a fly, maintain and provide parts for f-16 missions. Not only do you need to train pilots, you need to train maintainers on a new jet. Working with the RNLAF, parts were very hard and slow to obtain. Theoretically it takes a year or more to transition to a new aircraft and The most effective way to operate was to take components from other downed aircraft that were hard broke for months at a time.
Don’t get me wrong, the Dutch Pilots and mechanics were excellent at what they had to do with what they had to work with at the time. They were part of the NATO plan to operate American aircraft in Europe. The way this plan works is the same as the Russians do for their allies. The United States and Russia train their allies and never give them aircraft equal to their own capabilities. The Russians and Americans know all of their allies fighter tactics, strengths and weaknesses.
The USAF is constantly upgrading their aircraft to gain the edge in the world of combat capabilities. We used to regularly go to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas NV to compete with dissimilar aircraft performing air to air and air to ground enemy attacks. I remember when the F-15E came out and no A-10s, F-16s, or any other fighter aircraft could detect them on radar. This progression never ends during the life of the aircraft. This technology is always incorporated into other assets to improve their ability to survive. Needless to say we were all eliminated in minutes because of advances in technology. Knowing the RNLAF’s used F-16 fleet, they will likely have no chance against SU-27 and SU-35 class Russian fighters.
It will be interesting to see how the Older F-16s will do against high tech Russian air to air threats, various ground attacks such as SAMS and shelling. In my opinion, operating with low technology aircraft, it will take a lot of luck and prayers for the Ukrainian pilots to be successful. It will be the little guys vs, the Giants.
Kevin L White is an air force veteran, author of the book “growing up White” . public speaker and part time columnist. He lives in Dayton Ohio with his wife Carolyn.
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