Lockheed Martin has said that it’s ready to meet demands for F-16 fighter jets if the US and its allies choose to ship them to Ukraine.
So far, the US and its allies have been hesitant to send fighter jets to Ukraine due to concerns that they could be used to target Russian territory. But the Western powers seem less and less concerned about escalation as the US and Germany have now pledged to send their main battle tanks.
Frank St. John, chief operating officer of Lockheed, told Financial Times that there has been a “lot of conversation about third-party transfer of F-16s,” which would involve European nations armed with the F-16 shipping them to Ukraine.
St. John said Lockheed wasn’t involved in the conversations but was preparing for the eventuality. He said the arms maker was “going to be ramping production on F-16s in Greenville [South Carolina] to get to the place where we will be able to backfill pretty capably any countries that choose to do third-party transfers to help with the current conflict.”
The Netherlands expressed openness to sending its F-16s to Ukraine last week, with the Dutch foreign minister saying it would look at any requests for the aircraft with an “open mind.” Another option could be for former Warsaw pact countries that are now NATO members to send their older Soviet-made MiG fighter jets to Ukraine and replace them with F-16s or other modern Western-made aircraft.
A Ukrainian Air Force spokesman claimed on Tuesday that the US and Ukraine have already determined an aircraft that Washington will provide for Kyiv. The spokesman didn’t specify which one, and there’s been no sign from the American side has agreed to send planes.
Throughout the war, Ukraine has been lobbying for the US to provide F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, which would involve months of training for Ukrainian forces. The US has already pledged weapons systems that require extensive training, including the Patriot missile defense systems and M1 Abrams tanks.
Lockheed Martin has benefited greatly from the war in Ukraine as many of its weapons systems are now in high demand, including the HIMARS rocket systems and Javelin anti-tank missiles. President Biden showed his appreciation for the arms maker last May when he visited a Lockheed Martin plant producing Javelins and said, “thank you, thank you, thank you.”
I’m having a psychic premonition… I see another World War in our future. “So long, it’s been good to know you, so long, it’s been good to know you…
Nah, nobodies going to end the world over Ukraine’s clown show.
BCB:
Does it, at all, concern you that Biden isn’t much different from Trump?
Donna what Trump proved was that no U.S. President since at least Wilson was in charge of US foreign policy.
This. All he did is show that the establishment had this little showdown planned and no mere president would stop them. The amount they freaked out over Trump not doing as he was told, the silly shit Trump did instead; it all amounts to nothing. The arms and oil industries still get their world-endangering war to enforce the same status quo that is slowly killing the world.
Unfortunately, that’s not how world wars work. See, world powers give weapons and earmarking capability to eastern Europeans with multigenerational grudges, who go off reservation to attack their rival dragging their allies into a war they thought would only kill the small nation’s people.
Well, you are not wrong.
One does not need to be a psychic to see where all this is going.
Global elite parasites are broke and that usually means next world war to fix things back as they were.
See who is the problem in this process?
Still sheeple do not care to do anything about it…
So, round and round we go…for a another ride to nowhere!
Like a good neighbor, Lockheed is there….
“Lockheed Says It’s Ready With F-16s If US and Allies Choose to Send Them to Ukraine The arms maker says it’s ramping up production of the fighter jet”
Training of even experienced pilots takes at least a year just for basic aviation skills in a jet. It will likely take a few years to train Ukrainians to fly an F-16 in a combat role.
The MiGs that the Ukrainian pilots were flying have instruments calibrated in meters and kilometers per hour for aircraft weight, performance, altitude and speed.
Good luck trying to squeeze 10 pounds of ability into a 1 pound sack.
Ukrainians will quickly become smoking holes in the ground as they fall victim to S-400, S-300 and BUK M3 SAMs.
How much kick back will Loyd J Austin get from Lockheed.
We all know, those F16s will have foreign pilots. Best thing Russia can do is capture some of those foreign pilots alive and parade them on International news.
A word from the Vietnam war comes to my mind. “Escalatio”.
“get to the place where we will be able to backfill pretty capably any
countries that choose to do third-party transfers to help with the
current conflict.” … it’s chillingly amusing how they can actually make this stuff sound like a rent party.
The MIC is the evil black heart at Amerika’s core.
Next on the menu – F-16s with NATO pilots.
What could possibly go wrong?
well maybe ukraine actually has guys that could pilot F-16s.
or maybe american pilots will fly them all the while pretending that it is not suddenly US vs Russia.
I know the next two steps. F35 and soon after, nuclear bombs for Ukraine to scare Russia.
“President Biden showed his appreciation for the arms maker last May when he visited a Lockheed Martin plant producing Javelins and said, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you'”…
…while stuffing wads of newly printed ten thousand dollar bills into Lockheed Martin executives’ jackets and pants pockets.
Tweets have gone viral of presidential security hoisting the doddering Biden upright after he knelt at the feet of one Lockheed Martin Executive to wedge bills in his $3500 GUCCI Jordaan loafers.
“Grovel, boy!” a delighted South Carolina Lockheed Martin executive cried in a second viral tweet. “Ah LAAAHK a President that grovels good!”
A thought did cross my mind this morning. Strategically, Russia is playing this well. This conflict has been going on since 2014 after the US sponsored puppet state was created. Long-term attrition that will wear away at resources and eventually EU patience all in hopes of fracturing Western alliances. I still think this is possible, but who knows as the US is hell bent on escalation.
So, if attrition is not working in Russia’s favour, Western supply and militarization of Ukraine will cross a certain threshold of Russian tolerance.
The true test will be when the first tactical nuclear weapon is deployed; most likely an artillery shell since HIMARS will be 100% ineffective in countering. The world will be in shock, but how will it react? I truly think that Russia is willing to do this. Capability is implicit.
What will the West do next? Continental Europe bears the weight and damage of both WWI and WWII, expansion of the USSR, former Yugoslavia, etc. The US, well, basically nothing near in comparison.
Will Europe be ready to up the ante? I truly think, no, it will not.
The next few months shall truly be “interesting times” as they say.
Lockeed, icons of our blood lust for money and power. Their “body language” borders on the sexual.