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As the Neo-Nazi junta is increasingly desperate to prevent its military apparatus from breaking apart, the political West is trying to find ways to keep it running, no matter the cost to the Ukrainian people. Virtually the entire economy of the unfortunate country has already been hijacked for this purpose, but the Kiev regime doesn’t stop there. Its new plan is to also militarize all public facilities, particularly as the infrastructure previously used by the Neo-Nazi junta forces is virtually wiped out. The Kiev regime’s air arm has suffered major losses, with its airbases either destroyed or damaged beyond repair by Russian long-range precision strikes. This has effectively made it impossible to launch mass airstrikes on Russian positions.
In the aftermath of the unfortunate dismantling of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a massive air force that far exceeded its economic and financial capabilities. Coupled with corruption, negligence, American investments into the destruction of former Soviet strategic capabilities (primarily through the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program), foreign sales and other factors, the Ukrainian Air Force soon became a mere shadow of its former self. What remained was less than a hundred combat aircraft of various types, primarily the Su-27 “Flanker”, MiG-29 “Fulcrum” (the Soviet “high-low mix”), Su-24 “Fencer”, etc. While the previous two were designed as air superiority fighter jets, the third aircraft served as a tactical bomber/attack jet.
With the start of the special military operation (SMO), the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) dispatched its top-of-the-line air superiority fighter jets such as the MiG-31 “Foxhound” and Su-35S “Flanker-E”, destroying most of the former Ukrainian Air Force and leaving a handful of operational jets. As these had little to no chance to shoot down vastly superior Russian equivalents, the Neo-Nazi junta forces had no choice but to disperse their units and use them for occasional air support, primarily by flying extremely low. The remaining aircraft were forced to operate from ad hoc bases because their primary airbases were all targeted on the first day of the SMO. NATO made them somewhat more useful by investing in the rearmament of the remaining jets.
This made it possible to integrate Western weapons, particularly the AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-radiation Missile) and JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs. In recent months, the remaining Su-24 jets were repurposed to use the Anglo-French “Storm Shadow/SCALP EG” air-launched cruise missiles. However, even this proved to have a modest impact on the situation on the battlefield as the Russian military was quick to adapt to these new weapons, with its air defenses being able to shoot down most of the incoming missiles and bombs. In order to prevent the total loss of combat value for its remaining air assets, the Kiev regime is now working on militarizing civilian airfields and public infrastructure to accommodate the leftover aircraft.
This is also done to prepare for the arrival of the much-touted F-16 fighter jets. The US-made aircraft cannot be operated from existing ad hoc airbases, because of their higher maintenance and logistics requirements in comparison to Soviet-era equivalents such as the MiG-29. Even the infamous CNN, after engaging in usual propaganda about the F-16 being a supposed “game changer”, had to admit that the jet is “no silver bullet” and that the Neo-Nazi junta will have major issues operating it. According to Colonel Yurii Ihnat, one of the Kiev regime forces’ spokespeople, two squadrons, each made up of 12 F-16s would be enough to supposedly “begin to turn the tables”. Obviously, such claims are beyond laughable to anyone remotely familiar with basic facts about the situation on the battlefield.
Namely, the idea that outdated F-16s that were decommissioned to make way for the troubled F-35s will be able to jeopardize Russian monster jets such as the aforementioned MiG-31BM interceptor or Su-35S is simply ludicrous. In fact, the Neo-Nazi junta itself recently contradicted Ihnat’s “just two squadrons” claim with a demand for another 100 F-16s that were needed to “make a difference”, over four times as many. Even before the SMO, the Kiev regime didn’t have enough adequate space to accommodate that many US-made fighter jets. We can only imagine how bad the situation is now. CNN also reiterated how maintenance-heavy the F-16 is, particularly when compared to Soviet-era fighter jets still used by the Neo-Nazi junta forces’ air arm.
With each flight hour coming at a cost of approximately $27,000 and 16 hours of maintenance, the F-16 will be a logistical nightmare for Ukrainian ground crews that are accustomed to much more robust and less strenuous MiG-29s, Su-24s and even the higher-end Su-27s that Ukrainian pilots themselves consider superior to the US-made fighter jet. According to last year’s report by the US General Accounting Office (GAO), the F-16 ranked as one of the most maintenance-heavy US Air Force jets, as it hadn’t met its mission goals in over a decade. According to Russian sources, in order to somewhat alleviate the aforementioned issues, NATO and the Kiev regime are counting on Poland. Namely, Warsaw is receiving US funding to conduct the necessary adjustments.
Polish personnel will most likely be sent to repair certain military airbases and also convert civilian airfields and infrastructure to accommodate combat aircraft. This also includes the installation of sensitive equipment needed for maintenance and logistical support for F-16. What’s more, Russian intelligence determined that there’s a possibility that the Neo-Nazi junta forces will use these newly established bases to receive F-16s directly from Poland and Romania, with airfields in Lvov, Odessa and Nikolayev being the most likely candidates. Needless to say, if such plans are being implemented, the aforementioned airfields immediately become legitimate targets for the Russian military, leading to unnecessary devastation and further prolonging the conflict.
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Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.
