08 February 2023 , 22:56
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President Zelensky’s fighter jet demands may cause problems for the British government.
The Challenger tanks we gave him were a step change, opening up the way for other countries to follow.
But the jets request is a huge ask.
We have around 100 Typhoon fighter jets and a further 27 brand new and hugely expensive F-35B fighter jets for our aircraft carriers, the latter costing around £100 million each, so we are not about to hand those over.
The RAF is currently putting out of service around 20 early variant Typhoons which whilst they are brilliant air-to-air fighters, and are available, don’t easily adapt to air-to-ground bombing runs.
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The request causes problems for the government (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)We are unlikely to give Ukraine machines that we still need, but those that we don’t need are not appropriate.
Zelensky’s pilots want jets like the US F-18 or F-16 or French Raphael Mirages.They are ideal air-to-ground bombers and can fight air-to-air.
There are plenty of F-16s in the US, Belgium and Holland, whilst F-18s are in large numbers in the US and Spain.
The request is a big one for the government (PA)The best way to help Ukraine is to give them jets that are good air-to-air and air-to-ground so they can control airspace and dominate ground – perhaps Crimea – in a future offensive.
Crucially, it takes about nine months to pull a Ukrainian pilot away from flying Soviet-era MiG-29 fighters to teach him or her to fly a new jet.
There is a race on to make this happen. When it does it needs to be with jets that can be supplied in volume.