Will the US send long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine?

The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) that the US is ready to send to Ukraine will give F-16 fighters greater combat power, according to Politico .

The JASSM missile will give the Ukrainian Air Force a capability that only a few other countries have.

No final decision has been made on sending the JASSM, but a Biden administration official told Politico that Washington is working out the complex details. Those include reviewing the transfer of sensitive technology and ensuring that the F-16s already supplied to Ukraine can fire the JASSM, which weighs more than 2,000 pounds.

Several US officials confirmed to Politico that the Pentagon has been working with Ukraine on such technical issues. Meanwhile, the Pentagon declined to comment on whether it has approved the transfer of JASSM to Ukraine.

JASSM will give the Ukrainian Air Force a capability that only a handful of other countries have: launching a cruise missile more than 200 miles away from a US-made fourth-generation fighter.

JASSM, developed by US defense giant Lockheed Martin and first put into service in the early 2000s, has been used sparingly in combat by the US and shared with only a handful of close allies, according to Politico .

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on August 4 that Ukrainian pilots had begun flying F-16s to carry out operations inside the country, confirming the appearance of this type of fighter jet more than 29 months after Russia launched a military campaign in Ukraine, according to Reuters.

Earlier, Reuters reported on August 1 that Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis and an unnamed US official confirmed that the first batch of F-16 fighters had arrived in Ukraine. Neither Landsbergis nor the US official said how many aircraft were in the batch, while The Times newspaper quoted a source confirming that Ukraine had received six F-16s from the Netherlands and would soon receive more from Denmark.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/lieu-my-co-gui-ten-lua-hanh-trinh-tam-xa-cho-ukraine-185240816072419601.htm