Gen. Milley: Ukraine Needs Billions of Dollars Worth of F-16s & Years

“Ten F-16s are $2 billion. So, the Russians have hundreds of fourth and fifth-generation airframes. If they (the Ukrainians) are going to try to match the Russians, one-for-one or even two-to-one, you are talking about a large number of aircraft.

That’s going to take years to train the pilots, years to do the maintenance and sustainment, years to generate that degree of financial support to do that. You’re talking way more billions of dollars than has already been generated,” Milley said during a press briefing.

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“That’s the difference between war on paper and real war. These are real people in real machines out there really clearing real minefields and really dying,” Milley said about the Ukraine counteroffensive. “It’s far from a failure.”

“They are slowly and deliberately and steadily working their way through all these minefields,” Milley said during a joint Pentagon briefing with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “It’s a very difficult fight.”

Austin and Milley said the counteroffensive is wearing Russian troops down, and their morale is low.

“They have suffered a lot of casualties, the Russians,” Milley said. “The Russian situation is not very good.”

The two leaders spoke after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a collection of leaders from more than 50 countries who meet periodically to determine what equipment Ukraine needs to beat back Russian troops.

“Ten F-16s are $2 billion. So, the Russians have hundreds of fourth and fifth-generation airframes. If they (the Ukrainians) are going to try to match the Russians, one-for-one or even two-to-one, you are talking about a large number of aircraft. That’s going to take years to train the pilots, years to do the maintenance and sustainment, years to generate that degree of financial support to do that. You’re talking way more billions of dollars than has already been generated,” Milley said during a press briefing.

Denmark and the Netherlands are leading an 11-nation coalition to train Ukrainian pilots on the fighter jet. No country has yet agreed to give Ukraine F-16s.

F-16s can carry nuclear weapons, and the US is considering “sharing” nuclear weapons with Poland. Sharing does not allow them to use them, but who knows how Russia will look at it.

Dmitry Medvedev said if Russia loses, it will have to use nuclear weapons.

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