It will take years to capitalize the infrastructure before the F-16 fighter jets enter service, but a comprehensive adaptation is currently underway so that the aircraft of this type will be as protected as possible and able to perform combat missions.
Yuriy Ignat, the spokesman of the Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said this on the air of the telethon, commenting on Lithuania’s statements that Ukraine will receive the first American-made F-16s in June 2024.
Will the infrastructure be ready to accept the F-16
– The readiness of the infrastructure is not a simple concept, since it takes years to prepare capitally. It would be ideal today to hide planes underground, as Iran is doing, to build reinforced concrete shelters that would withstand ballistic missiles, – he explained.
Ignat said that the protection of the F-16 involves the so-called passive defense – these are storage facilities and infrastructure, and the second – air defense means against ballistics, and against cruise missiles, and against drones.
– That’s why it all happens in a complex. We are already adapting the infrastructure for this type of aircraft. Adaptation is what will enable it to perform tasks from our runways and maintain at our airfields. Therefore, we really will not talk about the terms. The question is that we need this plane as soon as possible – the spokesman concluded.
On February 18, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the head of the Lithuanian Defense Ministry, Arvydas Anusauskas, said that Ukraine will receive the first American-made F-16 multi-purpose fighter jets in June 2024.
