WASHINGTON, November 15. /TASS/. US-made F-16 multirole fighter aircraft, to be delivered to Ukraine by the collective West, will undergo serious repairs and maintenance in a number of European countries, including Poland, a senior US defense official has said.
"The plan is as much as we can do the heavy maintenance in Europe, and Poland is one place," Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante said. "That’s the other thing that we are setting up."
In his words, the United States, its allies and partners are now training Ukrainian servicemen to do "the lighter maintenance" on the territory of Ukraine. "And that’s a challenge," he added.
He added that Western specialists are set to offer "telemaintenance" of the aircraft to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Ukraine has long been asking its Western partners to supply F-16 fighter jets, but the West has consistently maintained that such planes could not be transferred to Ukraine until Kiev’s pilots and ground crews underwent relevant training. Several countries have said that they are ready to take part in programs for the training of Ukrainian pilots. Thus, the Pentagon said in late September that the training of Ukrainian pilots had already begun in Denmark.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted that F-16 jets could reach Ukraine no earlier than the spring of 2024. Kiev says that it hopes that it will receive these fighter jets in the first half of 2024.