The United States has transferred several decommissioned and unserviceable F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine for use as a source of spare parts. This information confirmed the spokesman of the US Air Force in a comment to the specialized publication TWZ.
“The Air Force helped to maintain the serviceability of F-16s transferred to Ukraine by European countries by providing Ukraine with decommissioned and completely unusable F-16s for disassembly for spare parts.” said the spokesman.
According to him, these planes have long been decommissioned in the USA and cannot fly.
“It is important to note that they are missing critical components such as an engine or radar and could not be restored for operational use.” he added.
Last week, the partially dismantled fuselages of at least three such planes, wrapped in film, were loaded onto a Ukrainian AN-124 transporter at the airport in Tucson, Arizona. This resort is located near a large US Air Force base where decommissioned combat aircraft are stored.
“Aircraft surveillance systems showed that the transport plane returned to Poland”, – says the message.
Although the US has so far refrained from transferring combat-capable fighter jets to Ukraine, support for the Ukrainian Air Force continues in a different form. In total, international partners have promised to hand over 85 serviceable F-16s to Kyiv, some of which are used to train Ukrainian pilots in Romania.
