German Opposition Supports Combat Aircraft Deliveries to Ukraine

Friedrich Merz, leader of the German opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), supports the call to deliver combat aircraft to Ukraine to help it “restore sovereignty over its own airspace” in light of continuing Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Merz, speaking on German television on Sunday, July 14, said the situation “cannot be taken under control only from the ground,” and that “Germans cannot stand aside” as Kyiv’s other Western allies have already reached a consensus on fighter deliveries.

“I believe that we should help Ukraine to at least restore sovereignty over its own airspace. Since these missile attacks against infrastructure, electricity and water supply facilities, on hospitals and homes for the elderly, which are now happening more and more, cannot be taken under control only from the ground,” Merz said, as reported by Deutsche Welle (DW) citing the television interview.

Despite CDU’s former chancellor Angela Merkel being accused of an appeasement policy towards Moscow – the current leadership has called for more aid to Ukraine, including the transfer of Taurus long-range missiles. Opposing political parties questioned the CDU's motives.

Germany does not operate any US-made F-16s, it possesses a number of Panavia Tornado fighter bombers and the 4.5-generation Typhoon Eurofighter. In 2004, it transferred Soviet MiG-29s it had inherited from East Germany to Poland at a symbolic price of €1 ($1.2).

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The Eurofighter Typhoon is probably too advanced to be considered for transfer, while transferring aircraft other than F-16s presents a number of training and logistics challenges and was the reason why Kyiv recently declined the offer of Swedish Gripen fighters, citing the complexity of managing another aircraft system in addition to the new Western F-16s. 

During the Washington NATO Summit on July 9-11, US State Secretary Antony Blinken announced that Netherlands and Denmark had already started the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine, where they are expected to be operational “this summer.”

In addition, Norway said on July 10 that it would transfer six of the 22 F-16s which it pledged in April this year. 

While it’s believed that F-16s, with advanced Western avionics compared to Ukraine’s aging fleet inherited from the USSR, can give Ukraine a better chance against the more advanced Russian air fleet, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine needs at least 128 F-16s to effectively counter Russia’s air superiority.

Meanwhile, pilot numbers and the ability to protect the Ukrainian airfields likely to be used to house the new aircraft continue to be subject to challenges, including vulnerability to Russian long-range missile strikes, that Ukraine needs to tackle in order to effectively utilize the new capability the F-16s will bring.