US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said on Monday that training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets is way behind schedule
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th July, 2023) US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said on Monday that training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets is way behind schedule.
"The problem is training the pilots. It could take 4-6 months. So it way behind schedule," McCaul said during a virtual conversation with The Washington Post.
He stressed that US President Joe Biden decided to provide F-16s to Ukraine under G-7 pressure.
When asked what Kiev needs to continue fighting, the US lawmaker answered that it is longer-range artillery.
"Many sources on the ground in Ukraine, on the battlefront right now, (are) telling me that the cluster munitions have arrived, but still what they need desperately is this longer-range artillery," he said.
McCaul also supposed that the US administration may ask for additional funding for Ukraine until the end of the financial year in the end of September.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said the United States will permit its European partners to begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets and will provide the necessary tools for that purpose.
A coalition of 11 European countries, including Denmark and the Netherlands, formally agreed at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter aircraft.
