[Itse]

The latest Perun video is very timely for the discussion on F-16:s, and just generally super informative on the air war side.



The whole video is once again well worth the time, but a couple of TL,DW points:
- Ukraine is doing well with what it has, but they're still the clear underdog. Russia just has more of everything, and better pretty much everything, and there's only so much you can do to narrow that gap with clever tactics and innovative use of technology. Ukraine could really use more materiel for this front.

- A key reason Ukraine needs at least some F-16:s ASAP is that they are on their way to running out of SU-24s, currently the only platform Ukraine has that can launch Storm Shadows (and other potential NATO gifts such as French SCALP-EG:s). Those air launched cruise missiles are a key long range strike capability, but every SU-24 is at least 30 years old, a significant portion of them have been lost already, and Russia is spending a lot of energy to knock the rest of them out of the fight. This is a bit of a ticking clock.

So, in the short term Ukraine specifically needs domething to keep firing those Storm Shadows (and potential other NATO weapons), and pilots+supportive structure that are good enough to do that one job.