F-18 aircraft can operate from Ukrainian airfields, without their reconstruction - aviation expert Romanenko

He expressed his opinion on Espreso TV. 

“The main technical problem for which the American partners do not supply us with their aircraft is known. It consists in the fact that their F-15 and F-16 will not be able to operate from our airfields. Because our runways are made of slabs with gaps between them, and the landing gear of these warplanes just can't handle it. In my opinion, we need to do short-term planning and we should ask our allies to provide the F-18, because this aircraft has a much stronger chassis and it would be able to operate from our airfields, without their reconstruction,” the aviation expert noted. 

Valerii Romanenko added that Ukrainians will not be able to asphalt the lanes and remodel the airfields during the war.

“We could get these aircraft under the Lend-Lease Act adopted by the American Congress and return them to the Americans after the war. This project is feasible because there are fifty F-18 aircraft, with some two-seater options, on storage bases, for example, at the same Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. Moreover, these are fifty percent of the penultimate F/A-18C model. And then we could surrender them and agree with the allies on what type we should rearm our Air Force, but only after the war. Whether it will be F-15, F-16, or another type, but it is within the framework of the general NATO air defense system that we have to coordinate this type with them,” Romanenko noted.