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Media: Decommissioned fighter jets of the Australian Air Force may be transferred to Ukraine

Author:
Anna Kholodnova
Date:

Australia, the United States and Ukraine are discussing the transfer of 41 Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F/A-18 Hornet fighters to the Ukrainian military. Earlier they were planned to be destroyed.

This was reported by The Australian Financial Review (AFR) with reference to its sources.

According to their data, the USA is open to the initiative of gifting decommissioned F/A-18 aircraft to Ukraine.

"The decommissioned F/A-18s are in a hangar at the RAAF base in Williamtown, outside Newcastle [New South Wales, Australia] and, if not sent to Ukraine, will either be destroyed or sold to private aviation company RAVN Aerospace for use them in the US as "adversaries" for training military aviators," AFR writes.

According to the publication, negotiations are ongoing. This was confirmed by Australian security expert Robert Potter, who advises the Ukrainian government. However, a specific agreement has not yet been finalized.

Another AFR source with knowledge of the situation said it "didnʼt make sense to destroy the perfectly serviceable planes, which he said could be ready within four months and used to repel a Russian invasion," the AFR reported.