Defense

Former NATO official calls Biden’s cluster bomb decision a ‘smart move,’ but urges for more

by Julia Shapero - 07/09/23 7:00 AM ET

Adm. James G. Stavridis, former U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, left, testified on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 19, 2013, before the Senate Armed Services Committee. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former NATO supreme allied commander for Europe, praised President Biden’s decision to provide Ukraine with cluster bombs as a “smart move” but also called on the administration to “step up and provide F-16s.”

“I think it’s a smart move on the part of the U.S. to provide the cluster munitions that can help unlock that offensive going forward,” Stavridis said in an interview with radio talk show host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s “The Cats Roundtable.”

The Biden administration announced its controversial plans to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions, which have long been requested by Kyiv, on Friday.

Cluster munitions, which are designed to spread out multiple submunitions over a wide area, are banned by more than 100 countries under a treaty due to the risk that undetonated bombs could remain an explosive hazard for civilians.

Biden defended the decision to send the munitions, claiming it was “difficult” to make and came only after he discussed the idea with allies.

“The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition,” Biden told CNN in an exclusive interview set to air on Sunday. “I think they needed them.”

However, while Ukraine is on the “front foot” in what Stavridis described as the “land war,” he suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “more or less command of the air.”

“That air war, mind you, is where the administration should step up and provide F-16s,” Stavridis said. “They are authorizing training, but the next logical step is to bring that F-16 Fighting Falcon, as it’s called, to the battlefield, to the skies over Ukraine.”

After months of rejecting Kyiv’s requests for the F-16 fighter jets, Biden changed course in late May and said the U.S. would support an international coalition to train Ukrainian pilots on the jets.

“I think that would help the Ukrainians in the second war that’s going on,” Stavridis said, referring to the war in the air.

He added, “It’s time for the administration to really lean in with F-16s.”