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Last week, what the United States had been chasing since Trump was re -elected president. Washington reached an agreement around access and mineral exploitation Strategic and rare earths of Ukraine. Under the same, the United States obtains preferential rights and investment capacity On the natural resources of the nation (including titanium, zirconium, graphite, gas, oil and manganese) in a framework that aims to boost the reconstruction of the country devastated by war, without imposing any debt to Kyiv. For its part, the United States has reactivated help in the conflict.
A new pact. The main instrument will be The so -called Investment Fund for the United States – Ucrania reconstruction, a binational entity with the same representation of both parties that will manage new licenses without affecting pre -existing companies or previously compromised budgets. For the Ukrainian authorities, the agreement represents a Investment -based alliancetechnology and shared autonomy, not in economic subordination.
The logic of the agreement. One of the most striking elements of the pact is the explicit elimination of any type of Debt obligation from Ukraine to the United States. This gesture dissipates, a priori, Trump’s recurring criticisms about the “lack of compensation” for US military assistance, encrypted by the president in 350 billion dollars (figure “something” different from other levels).
Ukrainian Minister of Economy, Yulia Svydenko, stressed that the agreement The legal status does not change of public or private companies of the extractive sector and that the income of the fund will be nourished only from new licenses, ensuring that current public funds will not be touched.
Technology and deterrence. Although the agreement did not detail explicit commitments on military aid, both the official narrative and political statements They already pointed to a renewed willingness to support by the Trump administration. For Zelenski, the agreement opens the door to sustained flows of investment and technological transfer not only for economic development but also For defensive purposes. Svydenko indicated that the United States will help attract Key technologies that support the fight against Russia, with possibilities open to projects such as air defense systems.
From Washington, the message is unequivocal: the agreement is also an instrument of strategic pressure and firm alignment in front of Moscow. Treasury Secretary Scott Besent declared that the firm represents A clear sign to the Kremlin that the United States bets in the long term for a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. Trump, meanwhile, defended the pact as a way to protect US investment and reinforce the Ukrainian position in front of a “much larger and more powerful” Russia.
The first “package”, in fact, It is on its way.
F-16 unusable. Yes, the United States has begun to send to Ukraine F-16 fighters retired and non -operational, stored in his famous “Boneyard” of Arizona. The underlying idea is that these are used as a source of crucial spare parts for the growing F-16 fleet donated by European countries. The gesture, confirmed by the American Air Force after the appearance of images that showed involved and partially dismantled fuselages being loaded in a AN-124 Ukrainian In Tucson, it marks a new stage in the complex maintenance logistics that requires the use of these veteran Western fighters in active combat against Russia.
The sent aircraft lack essential components such as engines, radars or wings, which makes them unusable in flight, but their value resides in the pieces they do, many of which are scarce in Europe. Transportation, destined for Rzesów-Jjaka, the Key Logistics Center In southeastern Poland for the transit of military aid to Ukraine, it reinforces the hypothesis that these F-16 will be integrated into the support system and not into the operational inventory.
An international fleet. It is estimated that Ukraine will receive up to 85 F-16 in flight conditions: 24 from Netherlands, 19 of Denmark, 12 of Norway (which will also donate 10 additional exclusively for spare parts) and 30 promised by Belgium. However, part of these aircraft will go to pilot training at the F-16 formation center in Romania, which further reduces direct availability for combat.
Before the loss of units in the front (two fighters They have already been shot downwith the death of their pilots In defensive missions) and the logistics difficulty involved in maintaining an old aircraft fleet, the supply of fuselages dismantled from the United States represents a strategic relief in terms of maintenance, although it does not expand direct offensive capacity.
Configuration and tactical capacity. The F-16 Ukrainians have been deployed both in Air-Aire and Aire-Fetierra missions, using missiles AIM-9X and AIM-120 AMRAAM for air defense, in addition to GBU-39/B guided bombs mounted in Racks Bru-61which allows them a capacity Surgical of in -depth attack.
Configurations have also been seen with three external fuel tanks, necessary to maximize autonomy in the absence of aerial refueling, and electronic warfare systems such as The AN/ALQ-131that reinforce survival in hostile environments. Units include internal electronic improvements specialized in threat detection and display of countermeasures.
Cemetery of fighters as a vital source. The Base Davis-Monthanwhere the official “Boneyard” Air Force is located, still retains hundreds of F-16 fuselages in a variable state. Namely: 150 of model A, 27 of B, 143 of C and 22 of the D, although much of them are not suitable for flying again.
Many of the reusable specimens have been diverted to functions such as aggressive airplanes for the Navy and the Air Force or converted into aerial targets QF-16 For training. Moreover, this progressive exhaustion of useful stocks has caused even the United States to extend the useful life of active service, while resisting, for now, the idea of delivering blasting units to Ukraine.
Limited supplies. Plus: the slowness in the delivery of F-16 by European allies, such as He has recognized Belgiumis due in large part to the shortage of spare parts. The technical demand that involves putting these fighters (even more so in a previously structured Air Force around Soviet platforms) converts the arrival of parts into an urgent need.
The Ukrainian fleet should not only absorb the new technology and tactical training, but also adapt to a completely different maintenance scheme, without the infrastructure or the accumulated experience posed by NATO nations. Seen, this kind of “corpse” fuselages that arrive from Arizona, by modest that seems, are transformed into a vital tool to support the operation of the fighters that are in the air.
Wear and time. In summary, although these Made in USA aircraft will never take off alone, their usefulness lies in guaranteeing that others keep doing itin a conflict where each air mission represents a line of defense against the growing abilities of Russian missiles and fighters.
The arrival of these pieces, added to the deployment of sophisticated weapons and electronic warfare systems, suggests that, beyond the number of airplanes, the true challenge (and possibly the decisive terrain) will be the Ukrainian capacity to keep them operational, supplied and effective in an increasingly demanding scenario. In that context, the US contribution, although indirect, charges an essential strategic value.
Image | US Air Defense
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