KYIV. January 26. UNN. The Lockheed Martin company, which produces American F-16 fighters, has announced its readiness to supply aircraft to countries that will transfer their fighters to Ukraine. This was reported by the Financial Times with reference to the statement of the chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin, Frank St. John, reports UNN.
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St. John said that “there is a lot of talk about transferring F-16 fighter jets to third parties,” meaning that countries would re-export their U.S. fighter jets to Ukraine to protect its airspace.
The company is not directly involved in the talks, he said, but Lockheed Martin “is going to ramp up production of the F-16 in Greenville, South Carolina, to a level where we can pretty effectively support any countries that decide to transfer.” aircraft to third parties to help resolve the current conflict.”
It is emphasized that the White House rejected Ukraine’s request for the provision of modern F-16 fighter jets, due to fears that they could be used to strike Russian territory. First, the US government must approve the sale or transfer of American-made fighter jets to third countries, which means that European countries will need political support from the administration of US President Joe Biden.
According to a representative of the US Department of Defense, “there is nothing to announce about the F-16 fighter jets at this time.” In Europe, it is believed that the re-export of F-16 by EU member states directly to Ukraine is one of the possible options.
We will remind
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he called the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky after Berlin’s decision to transfer Leopard 2 tanks to the Armed Forces.
The German government before that reported about the supply of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, initially it is about sending 14 tanks by Germany.