Small and inefficient: Ukraine's problem with future F-16 fighters is the same as with Abrams tanks

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that F-16 fighter jets provided by the West will not be able to dramatically change the situation at the front.

Here's What We Know

Speaking at the NATO summit in Washington, Zelenskyy said that the effectiveness of the F-16s comes down to quantity and time.

"We always wait, just like my mother used to wait for me after school. This is the same, but much more serious. The problem with F-16s is the number and dates," the president explained.

Zelenskyy noted that because Russia uses so many combat aircraft "on the territory of Ukraine," a small number of F-16s would not matter.

"Even if we have 50, it's nothing. They have 300. We are defending ourselves, so we need 128," he said.

As the Ukrainian president noted, his concerns about the number of F-16s and the timing are similar to those surrounding the US-delivered Abrams tanks that arrived in Ukraine last autumn. In total, the US sent only 31 M1A1 Abrams, and they were delivered to Ukraine several months after the British and German tanks.

The Abrams, despite its reputation as a "tank killer", was unable to fight in Ukraine, where massed tank battles were not an option and tank-to-tank combat was rare. The US vehicle faced threats from drones, anti-tank weapons and mines.

Source: Business Insider