Turkey s acquisition of the Russian-manufactured S-400 missile air defense system in 2019 (in place of United States or NATO-manufactured equivalents) resulted, not only in Turkey being booted out of the F-35 program but also in the imposition of U.S. sanctions.
everything they need. the question of the f-16s is a very complicated one it s a very sophisticated airplane, sophisticated technologies on it, and it requires a significant maintenance program to go with it. all of that needs to be brought together. we are moving with our allies to bring to ukraine aircraft, fighter aircraft that they re familiar with. these are the russian makes and various models. those they know how to equip, those they re already trained to use. that would be the first way to go here. secondly, we need to keep in mind in russia has a very, very sophisticated air defense system, the s-400. it has a very, very long range. the question is would these planes be useful on the eastern front. probably not because the s-400s which are there along the russian border, can easily take
well, first of all, we ought to round up all of the russian fighter jets, some of which are still in the eastern european former warsaw countries. those jets are very satisfactory for what ukraine needs, and ukraine already has all of the maintenance programs, the skilled technicians, as well as the skilled pilots. that would be the first step. the american f-16s are very sophisticated fighter jets, and very difficult maintenance programs are necessary. beyond that, those jets are not going to be particularly useful in the front line. on the eastern part of ukraine. russia has an s-400 air defense system, which is an extraordinary system, and very, very deadly, with a very long range. they can cover nearly the entire eastern part of ukraine from russia. and so, those jets flying at
the eastern part of ukraine, the donbas region, which is certainly subject to those s-400 air defense system that are just in that neighborhood. so we ll see what happens here. the rest of this package is extremely important, and we will in very short order, together with our european allies, sending armored vehicles of all kinds as well as the heavy tanks. we re committed to send at least 50 abrams tanks. once again, they re completely different than the european model, the leopard tank which is being talked about, as well as the british and the french tanks, those are diesel engines. the abrams is a completely different engine system, runs on a turbine, uses jet fuel and not diesel fuel. the maintenance of those tanks is extensive and on going. these tanks will arrive, and