Military

Ukraine Needs Flying Tigers, but Who Will Step Up?

Austin Smith

Published: September 20, 2024 7:30 am

Key Points:

• The Flying Tigers in WWII offer a parallel to Ukraine’s need for skilled pilots.
• F-16s’ widespread use provides a potential pool of volunteer pilots, though this could escalate tensions.
• Recruiting volunteer pilots is a possible solution for Ukraine’s pilot shortage, but it carries risks.
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Austin and Michael explore the historical parallels between the Flying Tigers of World War II and the potential for a similar group of volunteer pilots to assist Ukraine. Michael explains the concept of the Flying Tigers, American volunteer pilots who flew for China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and how they filled a critical gap in both hardware and pilot expertise. They discuss the possibility of recruiting experienced pilots from nations that use the F-16 to volunteer in Ukraine’s defense, though this approach carries risks, including the potential for escalation. The conversation highlights the need for creative solutions to Ukraine’s shortage of trained pilots and the challenges of sustaining the conflict against Russia.

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Edited Video Transcript:

I wanted to talk a little bit, you know, we’re talking about pilots here.

Can we talk a little bit about the Flying Tigers and what role they played historically?

Because you saw a lot of parallels that could be drawn to today.

Yeah, absolutely.

So the Flying Tigers is one of the most interesting stories.

Of a very neglected theater in Western scholarship, which was the Indo-Pacific Theater of World War II.

Now, the Second Sino-Japanese War began before World War II, and China was facing drastic shortages of aircraft and pilots to fly them.

So they developed a scheme quite early into the conflict to recruit retired American combat pilots who would be willing to fly for the Chinese Air Force on a voluntary basis.

They received the basic salary, but they were given really lucrative rewards for any Japanese aircraft that they shot down.

So the sort of parallel that you can draw there is just the desperate shortage of the political squabbles about supplying arms and munitions to China.

But what was another really interesting parallel is the aircraft that the Flying Tigers flew.

So they flew the P-Forty, which was kind of an older, it wasn’t a cutting edge aircraft by any means at that point in the conflict.

And it was a real all-rounder.

So it could do a little bit of everything.

In fact, one of my quotes that I read from one of the pilots was that he said that if the P-Forty had a periscope, we’d have used it as a submarine.

So it’s kind of like the World War II equivalent of the F-16 today.

And again, the commanding officer of the Flying Tigers was a very experienced American Air Force officer called Claire Lee Chennault.

You know, he said there was a quote that I think is really key that was really important then and applies today is, you know, combat pilots cannot be turned out like quick lunch hamburgers, no matter how urgent the emergency.

So he recognized that this is a long-term project.

So the Flying Tigers filled a desperate skill and hardware gap that the Chinese had.

I’m not going to overstate the impact that they had, but they were really, really helpful in that early part of the war and helping China to survive, to see another day and then bring in their own pilots.

Now, what ultimately happened to the Flying Tigers is they were folded into the U.S. Army after America entered the war.

But they were kind of like a really useful, almost forward deployment.

But there were a lot of political squabbles.

But I just thought it was a really interesting parallel we can draw with Ukraine today.

And, you know, we were talking about this desperate shortage of pilots.

Well, that might illuminate a possible solution.

And let’s just jump to the heart of the matter.

I love this framework.

We talked about how hard it is to train pilots for F-16 combat, although it is an older aircraft that is still specialized, extremely complicated piece of equipment.

Who would be the Flying Tigers for Ukraine?

Where would these pilots come from?

Would it be Poland, the United States?

Who would be who would fill the Flying Tiger role for Ukraine today?

Well, yeah, I don’t think I’m the only person who’s had this idea.

I think I’ve seen it bandied around a little bit.

Because, you know, when your back is to the wall, you’ve got to think creative.

And often the past can illuminate good ideas for the future.

But one of the really great things about the F-16 is just how many nations actually use it.

Dozens.

So that means that there could be a potentially pretty wide pool of pilots who could potentially be recruited.

So it’s not just the United States.

I don’t have the list of operators off the top of my head, but there’s a good twenty, twenty-four that, you know, so from all the donor countries, for example, might be convinced to fly on a voluntary basis.

And there’s another historical parallel we can draw here.

And this is more clandestine, and maybe it’s already happening, as far as we know, but no one’s going to tell us.

Maybe active service personnel are just flying under pseudonyms.

The Soviet Union did that during the Korean War.

They flew on behalf of North Korea, but they disguised it.

So that could be a creative solution.

Again, I’m not saying that you’ll ever hear that publicly.

But there is a potentially large pool of combat pilots who could be convinced to come back.

But again, that does carry a lot of risk.

Let’s not overlook that.

Again, it’s the risk of escalation.

That could be seen as if an active service member of a NATO country is involved in combat missions over Ukraine, that carries serious risk of escalation and being drawn into a wider war.

So it is a possible solution, but it’s one that has to be approached very carefully.

But we should also point out there are volunteer soldiers fighting in Ukraine right now from a variety of nations.

So why not in the air?

That’s just the point.

So I’m not saying that’s something that’s definitely going to happen or even should happen.

It’s just to illustrate a possible solution.

It’s a possible creative solution to a major problem Ukraine has.

And with time very much not on their side, they are going to need to think creatively if they want to stay in this conflict and get a positive outcome or whatever sort of favorable outcome they can at this point.