I have explained in this thread on why it is not easy to transfer Western jet fighters such as the F-16 to Ukraine because of major design differences that would take the learning curve and time beyond the urgency that Ukraine have for their pilots. Not that Ukrainian pilots cannot learn the differences and make adjustments, but that they will not have the
TIME to learn.
Here is one testimony of that difference...
The former F-35 test pilot Billie Flynn told The Aviationist that moving to the "cosmic spaceship" that is the F-35 was too much to ask of MiG pilots.
www.businessinsider.com
"Every part of how we mechanize the aircraft in the West is different from how Russians design their aircraft — every part of philosophy of how you fly an airplane, how you design cockpits, how you process information is different," Flynn
told The Aviationist.
"To say to an F-16 pilot, hey, we're Lockheed Martin, and we build the aircraft the certain way, and switches the certain way, and now we're going to give you the next generation of that, there's a logic flow of our design, of the F-16, as the baseline, that kind of looks like what the F-35 is," Flynn said. "That does not exist for the MiG cadre."
When I transitioned from the F-111 to the F-16, from centerstick to sidestick, from mechanical to fly-by-wire, it required a mental change. Not impossible, but different people needs different time and training/learning methods. And it is not confined to flyers but includes maintainers. In the end, it would be better off if former Soviet bloc countries give their Soviet era fighters to Ukraine.
But there is an important side issue here. What does it mean for air forces that flies 4th that may face 5th? According to US 'propaganda', the F-22 and F-35 have 10-1 kill ratios in exercises, and those were against line fighters like the F-15 and F-16. Now the F-35 is flying with some NATO air forces.
