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on august 30, local time, the wall street journal quoted u.s. officials as saying that for security reasons, the biden administration rejected a proposal to send u.s. contractors to ukraine to maintain western military equipment, including f-16 fighter jets. the report said that european countries are expected to intervene to provide maintenance and personnel support for u.s.-made aircraft and other western-aided weapons sent to ukraine.

according to the wall street journal, this american-designed aircraft is one of the most iconic jet fighters of the u.s. air force and requires an extremely high level of maintenance. typically, each fighter is equipped with dozens of logistics support personnel. all countries, including the united states, rely to some extent on private companies and their personnel to help maintain such complex fighters. without private contractors to provide maintenance services for the aircraft, including repairs and replacement of parts, ukraine will find it difficult to keep these western-provided aircraft operational.

f-16 data map

the report also mentioned that ukrainians have been struggling to maintain other weapons donated by the united states in the past. most of the maintenance work was completed by ukraine through video conference calls with foreign maintenance experts, or the equipment was shipped abroad for repair, which resulted in the weapons being unable to be put back into use.