F-16s for Ukraine will help but won’t be ‘game-changer’: Kendall

WASHINGTON — Following the Biden administration’s decision to greenlight the training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s in Europe, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said today that the pilots could be ready to fly in just months, but the aircraft likely won’t represent a “game-changer” for forces on the ground.

“They’ve demonstrated a lot of capability. I think it will take a matter of months, not years,” he told reporters during a discussion hosted by the Defense Writers Group when asked how difficult it would be to equip Ukrainian pilots whose training is based on Soviet-era fighters. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen more motivated individuals in terms of wanting to get into the fight and make a difference.”

However, Kendall cautioned that while the forthcoming Fighting Falcons “will give the Ukrainians an increment of capability that they don’t have right now, … it’s not going to be a dramatic game-changer as far as I’m concerned for their total military capabilities.”

Air defenses have left much of the air domain inaccessible for aircraft on either side of the conflict, an Air Force general explained in March. That, Kendall said, means there’s a “fundamental limitation” to what the fighters will be able to do. 

“So with small numbers of aircraft and with, you know, not a full suite of more modern capabilities, it’s hard to overcome those systems,” he said.

Kendall’s comments come after Biden administration officials reportedly told European nations that the US wouldn’t block the transfer of their F-16s to Ukraine, and after the administration said it would support the training of Ukrainian pilots in Europe. There are “a lot of open possibilities, including our partners,” about where to train Ukrainian pilots on the platform, said Kendall, who added that he “assume[s]” the fighters will be based in Ukraine.

Yahoo News first reported an Air Force assessment that said Ukrainian pilots could be trained in as little as four months, though Kendall emphasized that it wouldn’t be possible to get “significant numbers” of F-16s or other Western jets to Kyiv “in something less than at least several months.”

President Joe Biden has ruled out sending American jets to Ukraine, according to The Washington Post, but in his remarks, Kendall seemed to leave open the possibility, saying in response to a question about sourcing the fighters from the US, “I don’t know. I think there are a number of possibilities” officials haven’t straightened out yet.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council today told Breaking Defense about F-16s going to Ukraine, “As the training takes place over the coming months, our coalition will decide the details of when, how many, and from where they will be provided.”

In explaining the US’s dramatic shift in its stance on the F-16s, Kendall said, “We could certainly have started earlier, but there were much higher priorities.” He also acknowledged that the move was considered “escalatory” by some.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown and Kendall shared an “awareness they [the fighters] needed to go there at some point, but we didn’t have a sense of urgency,” the secretary said. Previously, US officials have said Ukraine was in much greater urgent need of capabilities like artillery and air defenses.

The about-face, Kendall said that in his personal view, indicates a “longer-term” outlook where Ukraine “is going to remain an independent nation” that will need “a full suite of military capabilities for its requirements.”

RELATED: UK training for Ukrainian fighter pilots meant for ‘post-war,’ but that could change, minister says

Ukraine anticipates the first F-16s could join the fight by this fall, according to a Washington Post report, likely meaning they will miss a looming counteroffensive to reclaim territory seized by the Russians expected this spring.

Breaking Defense’s Ashley Roque contributed to this report.