Stoltenberg: Ukraine Can Use West-Supplied F-16's Against Targets "Outside Ukraine"
Harold Turner
NATO head Jens Stoltenberg tipped the Alliance's hand today when he told media that the F-16's being given to Ukraine by the West, "Can be used to hit targets outside of Ukraine." Read: inside Russia.
Now, the F-16 is a terrific war plane but it is NOT Stealthy. It "can" be tracked by radar and it "can" be hit by surface-to-air missiles. Russia's air defense capabilities are second to none, especially with their S-400 and still un-used S-500. So the F-16's are not likely to last very long once they are placed in service of Ukraine.
One big unknown here is which missiles those F-16's will be equipped with. They can handle long-range air-to-ground missiles, some of which have a range "in excess" of 500 miles; which would put Moscow itself within striking distance of those planes.
Another even bigger "unknown" is where those F-16's will takeoff and land? The air fields inside Ukraine are beaten to a pulp by Russia. None of them - to my knowledge - is capable of handling the re-fueling, re-arming, and maintenance of those F-16 jets. So the big question seems to remain, WHERE will those jets takeoff and land?
Russia has made it publicly clear that if those jets takeoff from a NATO base, and attack Russians, then the planes AND THE BASE THEY TAKEOFF FROM will be "mercilessly destroyed." That right there opens the door to a NATO member country being able to say "We have been attacked" and invoke the NATO Collective Self Defense Treaty, Article 5. [Well, no. Not if NATO attacks first, directly from a base outside Ukraine. This would be Russia defending herself. – Editor]
Russia has ALSO made it publicly clear that they know NATO conventional forces are SUPERIOR to Russian conventional forces. They publicly admitted this. But Russia then ALSO said "We are a nuclear power. And our nuclear capability is superior to NATO. If Article 5, Collective Self-Defense is invoked against Russia, it will be a war that no one will win." Those are the EXACT words they spoke. Well, as most readers know, there is only ONE type of war that "no one will win" — a nuclear war.
