Australia considers transferring more than 40 F/A-18 fighters to Ukraine

This was reported by the Australian Financial Review, citing sources in the Australian government.

The US is favorable to the idea of ​​transferring F/A-18s to Ukraine. Washington's approval for the transfer of the planes is necessary because the US owns intellectual property on the fighter jets.

It is reported that 41 aircraft have been withdrawn from the service of the Royal Air Force and replaced by modern F-35s.

Decommissioned F/A-18s sit in a hangar at the RAAF base in Williamtown, near Newcastle. The fighters were previously expected to be scrapped or sold to private aviation company RAVN Aerospace for use in the US as "enemies" for pilot training.

Another source close to the negotiations agreed that there was no point in destroying the perfectly serviceable planes, which he said could be brought into combat readiness within four months and used to counter a Russian invasion.

The F/A-18 is an American carrier-based fighter-bomber developed in the 1970s. It is in service with a number of countries in Europe, Oceania and the Middle East. In the United States, the aircraft remained in service only in the Marine Corps, as well as in training and experimental squadrons.

At different times, the possibility of acquiring the F/A-18 was considered by Austria, Hungary, Poland, Singapore, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, and Chile. Several aircraft were ordered by Thailand, but the order was canceled after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

• On May 21, US President Joe Biden approved the training of Ukrainians on the F-16. Volodymyr Zelenskyy assured that Ukraine will not use these planes to attack the territory of the Russian Federation. Ukraine hopes to receive the first modern American F-16 fighters in the fall of 2023.

• On May 25, at a Ramstein meeting, it was announced that the coalition for the training of Ukrainian forces on the F-16 will be headed by Denmark and the Netherlands, and it will include four more countries: Norway, Belgium, Portugal and Poland.