The administration of US President Joe Biden is "open" to sending long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, which will give Ukrainian F-16 fighter jets more combat power.
Politico writes about this with reference to American officials.
The readiness of the White House to provide Ukraine with surface-to-air missiles appeared against the background of Ukraineʼs Kursk operation, which is already in its second week. However, the decision on the transfer of missiles has not yet been finalized — the Biden administration is working on complex details.
In particular, the Americans are checking the transfer of sensitive technologies and whether Ukrainian planes will be able to launch such a missile. The Pentagon has not officially commented on the possibility of transferring more powerful missiles to Ukraine.
Politico notes that the JASSM missiles are two-ton high-precision air-to-ground cruise missiles designed to destroy bunkers, fortifications, bridges and air defenses. The range of these missiles is from 370 to 980 kilometers, depending on the version.
As negotiations continue in the White House and the Pentagon, a representative of the Biden administration warned that there is still a lot of work to be done before any missiles reach Ukraine. In particular, it is necessary to make sure that the Soviet aircraft available in Kyiv and the recently transferred Western F-16s will be able to launch such a missile.
Ukrainian parliamentarians and advisers to President Volodymyr Zelenskyi have been pressing US officials for the past few months to deploy JASSM missiles. This pressure only intensified when the Ukrainian delegation visited the NATO summit in July this year. According to one of the sources, their request reached US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
- The American Forbes wrote in August 2023 that Ukraine requested JASSM missiles for the F-16.