The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, said that the American F-16 fighters will not be a "magic weapon" for Kyiv. According to him, cited by Politico, aircraft will cost much more than shells and ground equipment.
The general believes that in war there is no miracle weapon, the F-16 is not one either, like everything else. At the same time, fighters are very expensive.
If you look at F-16s, 10 F-16s cost a billion dollars, maintenance costs another billion dollars, so you're talking about $2 billion for 10 aircraft.
Millie explained.
The general recalled that Russia has "a thousand fourth-generation fighters."
If you are going to counter Russia in the air, you will need a significant number of fourth and fifth generation fighters, so, after analyzing the costs, the most reasonable thing is exactly what we have already done - the delivery of a significant amount of integrated air defense capabilities to cover the battlespace and prevent Russian dominance in the sky
- said the US Army General.
Earlier, Mark Milley said that Washington does not plan to supply Kyiv missiles of the MGM-140 ATACMS family, flying at a distance of up to 300 km, but is considering other options for long-range systems that it could transmit. According to him, from a military point of view, the United States does not have many such long-range ammunition that could be provided to Ukraine. In addition, their real capabilities, in terms of range and others, are somewhat exaggerated by the media.