US President Joe Biden backing on Friday the Western allies’ plan to train Ukrainian fighter pilots on F-16 fighter jets is “the most significant weapons announcement […] since the tanks were promised in February; arguably more significant, because while it doesn’t represent a step change in capability; what it does do is that it extends that asssistance into the air domain directly,” said Frank Ledwidge, a senior lecturer in military strategy at the University of Portsmouth. “It’s also interesting that the means by which this was leveraged to the United States was very similar; in other words, the British and one or two other powers in Europe got together in February and donated modern NATO tanks; much the same happened in terms of training promises and Prime Minister Sunak’s mention of a coalition for jets, which also pressured the US at this time as well. Although I suspect it wasn’t quite one following the other; I suspect there was a bit more co-operation than we’re led to believe.”
