“We are in the phase of rethinking”: Germany may agree to supply Ukraine with modern fighters

Germany may agree to supply Ukraine with modern Western fighters. Currently, the country’s government is in a phase of rethinking.

This statement was made by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. This is according to an interview with DW.

“We are just now in the rethinking phase and are checking what is possible and what we want and can do. And I think we will decide in the next two weeks,” he said.

It should be noted that Germany does not have F-16 fighters. However, the Bundeswehr has 93 Tornado multirole combat aircraft., which will soon be withdrawn from service and replaced by the F-35. Although this is an old jet fighter, it is still very powerful.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine turned to Germany with a proposal to transfer the Tornado combat aircraft to the Ukrainian army, which is fighting the Russian invasion. Berlin should soon replace these weapons with others.

The Tornado (full name Panavia Tornado) is a third-generation, two-seat, multi-role combat jet aircraft with a variable-sweep wing. Also known as MRA-75 and Panavia 200.

The Tornado can use most of the air-launched weapons in the NATO armies’ inventory, including both unguided and laser-guided bombs, anti-ship and anti-radar missiles, as well as specialized weapons such as anti-personnel mines, anti-missiles or munitions to destroy runways. In total, with a combat radius of almost 1400 km, Tornado can take on board up to 9 tons of weapons.

As GLOBAL HAPPENINGS reported, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that the Defense Forces will use all ground equipment in a long-awaited counter-offensive against Russian troops this summer. At the same time, the military would not have used F-16 fighters on it if they were already in service.