By Aysu Bicer
LONDON (AA) - There is no intention right now for the UK gifting fighter jets to Ukraine, the British minister for the Armed Forces said Wednesday.
"The decision could take a split second but of course, the reality is that to give jets is an enormous undertaking," James Heappey said at a press briefing in London where he highlighted some of the logistical and practical challenges in giving jets to Ukraine.
He said it is a complex process, requiring careful consideration of factors like fuel, spares, engineering, avionics and personnel expertise.
Heappey pointed out the potential implications, including the possibility of an escalation in the war with Russia.
"You can't just hand over third- and fourth-generation fighter jets to engineers that have no experience of them and expect them to fly any more than the first mission. That's clearly very challenging," he said. "A lot of expertise directly on the ground at the airfield to support and that would mean putting people forward into Ukraine onto those efforts from whichever countries we're gifting the jets because, it's you know -- you would need to help support them.”
He also said pilot training is a significant undertaking and it cannot be done quickly or easily.
"Now the other very long pole in the tent is the pilot training. You can't just hop into these planes and get going with that. The UK has announced that we will start pilot training ... and there is an opportunity for combat pilots that are effectively surplus to requirements to come out of Ukraine and start to train on other aircraft types in anticipation of NATO jets being provided to the peace time, postwar Ukrainian air force. But as you have heard, the prime minister has said that nothing is ruled out --everything is still on the table," he said.
That commencement of pilot training means that a decision could be made in the future but the decision to train pilots was not made explicitly with that in mind, he said.
Asked by Anadolu whether the UK could be encouraged if the US gives a greenlight in sending F16s to Ukraine, he said he does not know who the first to go through the "jet thresholds" will be.
“But very obviously each time that you go through a threshold, in the gifting, it's invariably seen as an encouragement to everybody else to go through that threshold,” he said. “The UK is very proud of the fact that we've been in there and be the first country to go through each threshold that's been our sort of role in in the world.”
"Whoever is the first to go through the threshold will undoubtedly embolden others to follow," he said.
Almost 12 months have passed since Russia declared a "special military operation" in Ukraine, which has resulted in the deaths of at least 8,006 civilians and 13,287 injuries, according to UN figures.