A third of the components for the Eurofighter jets come from Germany, the Reuters news agency reported.
The office of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is pushing for the sale of 48 Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia, while refusing to supply fighter jets to war-torn Ukraine, or even train Ukrainian pilots to fly such aircraft, Poland’s dorzeczy.pl website reported on Thursday.
Anton Hofreiter, an MP with Germany’s co-governing Green Party and the head of the European affairs committee in the Bundestag (lower house), said: “I believe it is wrong. We can’t be refusing to give weapons to Ukraine, while at the same supplying state-of-the-art weaponry to dictatorships and autocracies.”
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, multirole fighter jet manufactured by a consortium of Europe’s multinational Airbus corporation, Britain’s BAE Systems and Italy’s Leonardo, dorzeczy.pl noted.
Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov recently stated that the “fighter jet” coalition for his country would be based on the US-made F-16s, but could also include other models, “especially Eurofighter Typhoon” fighter jets provided by Germany, according to dorzeczy.pl.
However, Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said in May he didn’t believe that the fighters in Berlin’s stocks, notably Eurofighter and Tornado, fitted Ukraine’s battlefield requirements, dorzeczy.pl noted.
According to Pistorius, Germany’s fighter aircraft have totally different capabilities “than what is required in the current combat situation in Ukraine,” as quoted by dorzeczy.pl.
Ukraine would like the West to provide up to 50 F-16 fighter jets, or three to four squadrons, to help protect Ukrainian skies against Russian bombardment, according to officials.
The need for modern fighter jets has grown even more acute since March, when Russia started to deploy long-range, guided aircraft bombs on a large scale, dorzeczy.pl reported.
Reznikov’s adviser Yuriy Sak said the “fighter jet coalition” for Ukraine had become “the talk” among Ukraine’s allies, and described it as “a very encouraging sign.”
Meanwhile, Czech President Petr Pavel said the West was reluctant to supply Ukraine with the F-16 fighter jets, out of concern that “Russia will obtain the secret components installed in these aircraft,” the The New Voice of Ukraine website reported.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Friday is day 499 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
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Source: dorzeczy.pl, Reuters, The New Voice of Ukraine