Really putting Ukraine’s Abrams and F-16s to work fighting Russia means most probably won’t survive, but that’s the kind of war this is [Video]

The brutal war in Ukraine is the kind of conflict that is going to consume the Western tanks and fighter jets sent if Kyiv’s forces really put them to work in battle, war experts told Business Insider, arguing that the West shouldn’t be surprised if none of them make it to the end of the war.

This is an intense, large-scale, protracted fight, and the Ukrainians need to make bold, high-risk, high-reward plays, they said. That doesn’t preclude caution, but using them to their fullest risks losses.

“If any of the F-16s make it to the end of the war, they probably weren’t used hard enough,” Michael Bohnert, an air warfare expert at RAND Corporation, said.

“I hate saying that,” he added, “but we as the West have to realize every Abrams tank that was given, every F-16, if any of them make it through the war, they probably weren’t …