[Goose]

Would be great for the US to send F16s, but Biden doesn't have any more money allocated from congress, and F16s would be a very big ticket item.

I think it's unlikely congress would sign a generous enough bill for it to make sense for us to use the money on F16s as opposed to missiles, ammo, and other cheaper and more necessary items.

I agree they are "big ticket" items on paper, but many are heading to Davis-Monthan anyway. Others will go directly to scrap as there are already lots of F-16s in the "boneyard". Congress knows this. Lots of those airframes have some useful life left, but not enough to justify keeping them "just in case". I would expect this could be made to "fly" without much trouble :-). It doesn't add one dime to the national debt.

UPDATE: There are a total of 336(!) F-16s at Davis-Monthan, of which 130 are F-16C and 21 are F-16D. Lots of these aircraft will end up as target drones, but we have PLENTY. The F-16s being retired in the immediate future don't need to go to the boneyard. Send them to Ukraine.

I do think you are correct that the missiles, ammo and more necessary items that actually need to be replaced in US inventory are the ones congress has to worry about. However, replacing the F-16s in US inventory is already budgeted and happening. It is merely the "leftovers" and the timing that is at issue here :-).

[Goose]

Would be great for the US to send F16s, but Biden doesn't have any more money allocated from congress, and F16s would be a very big ticket item.

I think it's unlikely congress would sign a generous enough bill for it to make sense for us to use the money on F16s as opposed to missiles, ammo, and other cheaper and more necessary items.

I agree they are "big ticket" items on paper, but many are heading to Davis-Monthan anyway. Others will go directly to scrap as there are already lots of F-16s in the "boneyard". Congress knows this. Lots of those airframes have some useful life left, but not enough to justify keeping them "just in case". I would expect this could be made to "fly" without much trouble :-). It doesn't add one dime to the national debt.

UPDATE: There are a total of 336(!) F-16s at Davis-Monthan, of which 130 are F-16C and 21 are F-16D. Lots of these aircraft will end up as target drones, but we have PLENTY. The F-16s being retired in the immediate future don't need to go to the boneyard. Send them to Ukraine.

I do think you are correct that the missiles, ammo and more necessary items that actually need to be replaced in US inventory are the ones congress has to worry about. However, replacing the F-16s in US inventory is already budgeted and happening. It is merely the "leftovers" and the timing that is at issue here :-).