Ted Lieu to AF: Transfer US air assets to Ukraine

[ColinC]

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=ihgc3Lj-wg9gj6V1RETptw

President Zelenskyy has repeatedly made the same request: help Ukraine equalize its air power disadvantage. This may be a protracted war. Joined fellow @usairforce vet @RepHoulahan in urging @SecAFOfficial to immediately explore transferring US air assets to #Ukraine. Our letter:

[dchill]

1. Agree. K&R.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Ukraine has mostly or all Russian Migs. Not trained on US planes. . . nt

[malthaussen]

5. Which is why the proposal is to send Polish MiGs to Ukraine...

... and replace them with some F-16s out of our abundant surplus.

What I wonder about is the ground echelon, spares, and fiddly little logistical bits like that. Plane's no good if it's broken.

-- Mal

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Yeah, armchair analysts always think it is so simple. "Just fly em into Ukrainian airfields already"

Especially when there is the stalled convoy example of Russian logistics glaring at them all as a pointed example to consider logistics.

Another point that has not received much discussion is whether or not the armament bays are fitted the same.

[ColinC]

9. Ukraine has enough pilots to fly A-10s. They would be monumentally effective

Against convoys

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. I doubt they have any TRAINED on A-10s. Warplanes are not jalopies. . nt

[ColinC]

14. They do. This has been confirmed many times already

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Ah! Thanks. I'll take that on board for the time being.

I thought the Ukrainians wouldn't have had access to them (for training and hours), not being part of NATO and for fear of triggering Putin. But I had not read a definite statement.

[ColinC]

16. Sorry my source is Rep. Ted Lieu and I took his word for it but was unable

To independent confirm myself. This is actually the best I got:

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=g-YnSkg8udaLGcmFMt6pcw

On edit, found this:

Provide US A-10 ground-attack aircraft – currently scheduled to be mothballed – to Ukraine as Excess Defense Articles. Thanks to prior military exchange programs, Ukraine already has a small number of pilots trained to fly the A-10. If spare parts and maintenance are required, use part of the US $1bn funding to allow Ukraine to hire private contractors, rather than involving US personnel directly.

https://cepa.org/six-ways-to-help-ukraine-survive-right-now/


I remember seeing similar exchange programs in 2014 when training at an AFB. At the time there were Saudi pilots training on our planes.

[ColinC]

17. Also here is what CEPA explains about it.

Provide US A-10 ground-attack aircraft – currently scheduled to be mothballed – to Ukraine as Excess Defense Articles. Thanks to prior military exchange programs, Ukraine already has a small number of pilots trained to fly the A-10. If spare parts and maintenance are required, use part of the US $1bn funding to allow Ukraine to hire private contractors, rather than involving US personnel directly.

https://cepa.org/six-ways-to-help-ukraine-survive-right-now/

So it does appear that Ukraine does in fact have pilots who can fly A-10s.

[Raven123]

3. I'm tired of the armchair presidents from both parties

No one can govern, negotiate foreign policy, or conduct war by tweet. Say what you want privately, but but present a unified front for goodness sake

[NightWatcher]

4. Thank You! What's to keep putin from pointing at this and saying "see, USA wants in the war, here's

some missiles flying over the water for y'all since you want to participate.

Behind the scenes is one thing, but not like this.

[lagomorph777]

6. We need to quit acting afraid of Putrid.

He's dead if he fires a nuke.

We're dead if we let him roll over Europe.

[ColinC]

10. Exactly

[uponit7771]

11. Putin's an asshole he's not stupid

[Sherman A1]

7. +1000

Well Said!

[Sherman A1]

8. NO