Ukraine may not get UK fighter jets for years, says Ben Wallace

Defence secretary Ben Wallace has said it could be years before the UK gives any fighter jets to Ukraine as he joined a Nato security conference.

The cabinet minister suggested it was likely that president Volodymyr Zelensky may even have to wait until the war with Russia was over before British aircraft was supplied.

“I don’t think it’s going to be in the next few months or even years,” he told the BBC. “These are aircraft that come with not only huge sort of capability challenges. You just can’t learn to fly in a week or two, it will take a long time.”

Saying a fleet of a fighter jets would involve “hundreds of engineers and pilots”, he added: “We’re not going to deploy, you know, 200 RAF personnel into Ukraine in the time of a war.”

Mr Wallace, who is in Brussels for a meeting of Nato defence ministers, also admitted he faced an “uphill battle” with chancellor Jeremy Hunt and the Treasury in a bid to boost Ministry of Defence spending.

But he dismissed reports he would resign if he does not get enough money in the spring budget. “The most important thing is that I present a good case to the chancellor, a good case to the prime minister,” he said.

The defence secretary also described reports in the German media about Nato chiefs asking Germany to stay in charge of the organisation’s rapid-reaction force next year as “just b*****ks”.

The UK will be taking over the leadership of the Nato Response Force (NRF) at the end of 2023. However, reports in the German media claim that Nato has asked Berlin to remain in charge for an extra year because of the depleting British reserves.

Mr Wallace told BBC Breakfast: “The story of Germany, it’s just b*****ks, right? I mean, to be honest, the simple reality is Nato leadership did not approach anybody. We are taking over the NRF as scheduled and it’s interesting that story is based on a source on a German website I’ve never heard of.”

The defence secretary has said he is “certainly confident” the UK could deal with the mystery objects shot down over the US, amid concerns that China has launched a series of spying missions.

He also said he is hopeful China is not hacking the UK’s CCTV cameras after the government’s surveillance commissioner warned that British police forces are “shot through” with Chinese cameras, drones and other equipment.

“I don’t think they are hacking our sensitive CCTV cameras and we take every effort to protect areas that are sensitive from anybody hacking it,” Mr Wallace told Sky News.

The senior Tory minister also said he does not see “any signs” of UFOs when asked about objects shot down by fighter jets over North America in the past week.

He told Times Radio: “I’ve asked for a look at all the intelligence and an analysis of what’s going on, above us in our airspace in the United Kingdom, but also sharing information with our allies.

“Apparently, our skies have quite a lot of balloons in them, quite a lot of times of the year … So, I think we’ll just need to get the details and I’ll share whatever I can publicly, but I don’t see any signs of ET.”

Asked if he gets any briefings on UFOs, Mr Wallace said: “I’m waiting to discover that we actually have in Britain a sort of Area 52 or whatever they call it. No-one has given me a file saying, ‘Actually in 1964, we, you know, we discovered aliens and it’s a state secret’.”

Meanwhile in Brussels, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg urged members of the alliance to commit to spending at least 2 per cent of national income on defence – a target which the UK hits.

“There is a full-fledged war going on in Ukraine, in Europe, and then we see the persistent threat of terrorism, and we see also the challenges that China is forcing to our security. So, it is obvious that we need to spend more,” he said.

Defence ministers at the summit announced the first multimillion-pound package from the International Fund for Ukraine (IFU) to include tank spares, uncrewed air systems, electronic warfare and air defence.

Mr Wallace said: “This equipment package will provide a significant capability boost for the armed forces of Ukraine and will support their ability to defend their country.”