The jets will help Ukraine supress Russian air-defense systems and may ease the strain on the country’s own air defenses by intercepting cruise missiles.
  • EdibleFriend@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    9 months ago

    The Netherlands has F 16’s they were goin to sell to an American company so that company could use them to help train people in the US airforce? Am I reading this right?

    I…what is reality? An American jet, sold by a foreign nation, to an American company, so they can use it in training the air force??

    • SSTF@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      13·
      9 months ago

      Yes that’s right. The company does adversary training, or in other words they play the role of the enemy in air-to-air combat training.

      They were buying the aged F-16s that are obsolete in Dutch service, having been replaced by F-35s.

      The company was trying to buy used hand me downs. It wouldn’t have been USAF pilots inside learning to pilot old F-16s.

      • EdibleFriend@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        9 months ago

        It’s still a tad odd that the military needs help from a private company with US hardware at all isn’t it? They cant do war games with each other with their own shit?

        • MrSpArkle@lemmy.caEnglish
          7·
          9 months ago

          Fighter pilots tend to be on 10 year contracts, and when they get out typically fly commercial.

          The business opportunity here is actually valuable.

          Offer those retired pilots a chance back in a fighter jet where they can live a non-military life while teaching younger pilots what 10 years of experience looks like.

        • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          They could… But that doesn’t help get more money from the military budget to private company profits.

        • jonne@infosec.pubEnglish
          31·
          9 months ago

          It’s your classic privatisation bullshit. It’s sold as a money saving exercise, but you just end up shoveling more tax money to a private enterprise. Instead of the military paying for pilots + maintenance + planes, the tax payer is paying for pilots + maintenance + planes + a healthy profit margin for some private company.

    • guslipkin@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      131·
      9 months ago

      Basically, the US military wants as many planes ready to go as possible, but still needs training. If they use their own pilots as the enemy, they need twice as many as if they hire someone else to be the enemy. Draken usually flies fourth generation fighters upgraded with modern avionics and other equipment so they’re a solid training tool and comparable no what US pilots would encounter overseas. That said, there are a few companies that fly red air and they’re used to bolster the amount of pilots available for training missions, rather than the only option.

      Sourre: I worked for Draken at their headquarters in Lakeland