- The US is giving Ukraine a cache of advanced weapons with its F-16s, per The Wall Street Journal.
- The transfer includes advanced missiles and bombs, per the Journal.
The US is giving Ukraine advanced missiles and bombs to go with its F-16s, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The transfer will include the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile, the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile, and the AIM-9X Sidewinder, The Journal said on Tuesday.
The cache was also said to include guidance kits for bombs, and the US-made Small Diameter Bomb.
The Journal cited an unnamed senior US official for the information.
"We are confident that we will be able to supply all of those [weapons], at least the critical volumes that they need," the official said.
Ukraine is due to receive the first US-made fighter jets from its Western partners this summer.
They will significantly improve the capabilities of Ukraine's existing fleet of outdated, Soviet-era jets.
They could play an even more significant role on the battlefield now that allies have given Ukraine permission to use their weaponry to hit targets on Russian soil, George Barros, a Russian military expert at the Institute for the Study of War, told Business Insider earlier this month.
However, during an interview at the Reagan Institute earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there may be too few F-16s to make a difference on the battlefield.
"Even if we will have 50, it's nothing. They have 300," he said of Russia's number of combat aircraft. He said 128 F-16s would be needed to make a difference.
Other challenges Ukraine still faces are training enough pilots, maintaining the aircraft, and deciding the best way to use them.
If the US delivery of advanced weapons is confirmed, it could upgrade the F-16s' capabilities but not turn the tide, according to defense officials.
"It's an important addition," Norwegian defense minister Espen Barth Eide told the Journal, but he added: "It's not in itself changing the war."
Rolf Folland, chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, made a similar remark, saying: "It will not be a silver bullet."
"But if you have F-16s with long-range weapons, you will push the Russian air force further away, and that is the most important thing," he told the outlet.