Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov hopes the coming weeks will bring success in negotiations on aviation. Ukraine is in dire need of modern aircraft.
Reserve Colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, military expert and pilot-instructor Roman Svitan spoke about this Channel 24. Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov also noted that aviation could change the course of the war in favor of Ukraine.
Svitan stressed that the planes are indeed very important for the further actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in particular, for the counteroffensive. However, Ukraine also needs to protect the sky from enemy aircraft and missiles.
Based on the “Ask for more, you get as much as you need” paradigm, we need about 200 aircraft. This is for offensive operations at the front, and to close the sky, – said the reserve colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
He added that Ukraine can get by with 100-120 aircraft. This amount is enough to carry out 1 – 2 offensive operations.
Ukraine's military fleet is outdated even by the standards of the USSR
However, according to the instructor pilot, we need to completely re-equip our aviation with new types of aircraft.
Roman Svitan
Reserve Colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Instructor Pilot
The fleet that we have is, to put it mildly, outdated even by the standards of the Soviet Union. It can perform certain combat missions, but it is simply impossible to fully reveal the capabilities of aviation.
A military expert explained that it is impossible to use the existing aircraft in Ukraine at full capacity for 2 reasons.
- The Ukrainian air fleet has very outdated avionics. The electronic systems used on aircrafts were developed back in the last millennium.
- There is also a problem with the old types of weapons carried by our fighters, interceptors, attack aircraft and bombers.
Ukraine needs 5-6 aviation brigades
The instructor pilot stressed that in order to update the old equipment, exactly about 200 aircraft are needed.
“That is, these are 5 – 6 aviation brigades. We are talking about 2 – 3 squadrons – depending on brigades,” Svitan noted.
Western aircraft for Ukraine: in short
- Ukraine wants to renew the entire fleet of Soviet aircraft. They are already morally and physically obsolete. And they work only thanks to Ukrainian pilots.
- As Yuriy Ignat, the speaker of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said, Ukraine needs Western-made aircraft. Ignat noted that the Ukrainian side immediately needs 5 brigades.
- French President Emmanuel Macron does not rule out the possibility of transferring modern fighter jets to Ukraine. Macron stressed that the topic of aircraft is not taboo.
- Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his country also does not exclude the transfer of F-16 fighters to Ukraine. However, this is only possible in coordination with NATO.
