Kyiv will finally get the American F-16 fighter jets it’s been insisting it needs to repel Russian advances on the battlefield. However, Kyiv is likely to receive far fewer American fourth-generation fighters than it had hoped, as per a Bloomberg report.Ukraine may be able to field anything from 15 to 24 jets, well short of the 300 its leaders have called for, Bloomberg wrote. A source told Bloomberg that Kyiv expects to get six F-16s this summer and up to 20 by the end of the year.The move to send warplanes has been marred by delays, questions around spare parts, and a language barrier between Ukrainian pilots and their foreign trainers. Planners also worry that Ukraine doesn’t have enough runways, and those it does have are vulnerable to Russian attacks. The logistics of supporting the planes are complex, from the need for spare parts to maintenance demands to finding engineers. The planes must also be reconfigured depending on their task, such as reconnaissance or combat, as per experts.
