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it is never that easy to refocus efforts. War is incremental.

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F-16s are more powerful but also more fragile than the Soviet fighters that Ukraine uses and require specialized logistics and infrastructure.

For example, they require smoother runways. One of the biggest challenges will be resurfacing the runways that Ukraine plans to use without attracting the Russians’ attention.

“Airfields must be protected from air strikes, which means it will be necessary to deploy the air defense systems if it has not already been done,” Viktor Kevliuk, an expert of Ukraine’s Center for Defense Strategies, told the Kyiv Independent.  

“The allies should also provide us with air-to-air missiles for air combat because Soviet bombs are not suitable for this plane,” he said. These weapons, plus all the fuel reserves have to be kept somewhere safe and well-guarded. ”This is quite a long process.”

Even though they’re thought of as modern aircraft, F-16s first entered production in the late 1970s. Ukraine is trying to get more modern avionics and weapon systems installed on the planes it will be getting, which would significantly improve their performance. The jets will require lots of spare parts that the U.S. has pledged to provide