Author: openjargon

• Honda has unveiled the N-VAN e, a tiny electric truck costing from $15,500.
• The diminutive truck is targeted at delivery companies and goes on sale in Japan in October.
• Japan is famous for its tiny Kei cars, which are ideal for short journeys and city driving.  

Japan is famous for its tiny vehicles, known as Kei cars, which are well suited for navigating the narrow streets of crowded cities like Tokyo.

The country's best-selling electric vehicle last year was the Nissan Sakura, a $13,000 electric Kei car that outsold EV giants like Tesla, according to data from auto industry groups compiled by Bloomberg.

Now, Honda is getting into the tiny EV game. The Japanese automaker has unveiled the N-VAN e, a miniature electric truck that starts at 2.44 million yen ($15,500).

It comes as Japan lags behind the rest of the world in transitioning to EVs. Just 2.2% of new passenger cars sold in Japan in 2023 were electric, according to data from industry bodies, compared to 25% in EV pace-setter China, per Nikkei.

Honda's electric truck will be targeted at delivery and construction companies rather than ordinary consumers. The company is already trialing the pocket-sized truck with logistic firm Yamato.

The EV will have a range of 152 miles and will be able to charge in 30 minutes with fast charging, Honda says.

Honda has also attempted to solve the issues EVs have in hot and cold temperatures, installing a battery cooling and heating system to ensure it remains at a stable temperature.

The company says the N-VAN e will also function as a mobile power storage device, with drivers able to use the truck's external power outlet to charge household appliances such as hot plates and electric kettles.

The N-Van can seat between one and four people, depending on which style the buyer selects; each option varies in price. The truck is expected to launch in Japan in October.

Separately, Honda announced it would establish a new company in partnership with fellow Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi.

The new joint venture, Altna, will aim to lower the cost of electric vehicles and extend the lifetime of EV batteries.

Like other Japanese automakers, Honda was slow to get into the EV game.

However, it is now racing to electrify, investing $11 billion in a Canadian EV hub and pledging to have 80% of its vehicle lineup be EVs by 2035 and 100% by 2040.

• Donald Trump met with some of America's top CEOs on Thursday.
• The former president pledged to slash taxes and red tape in a bid to win over corporate America.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook and JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon were among those attending the event.

Donald Trump made his pitch to some of America's top CEOs on Thursday, promising to cut taxes and red tape in a bid to win over corporate America.

The former president was among the speakers at a Business Roundtable event in Washington, D.C. attended by Wall Street titans including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America's Brian Moynihan, and Citigroup chief Jane Fraser.

Trump's economic advisor Stephen Moore said Apple CEO Tim Cook had a front-row seat at the event, Reuters reported.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee laid out his right-wing economic agenda as part of an hour-long conversation with the conservative commentator Larry Kudlow, per The Financial Times.

Trump promised to consider cutting the top corporate tax rate from 21% to 20%, The Associated Press reported, citing a person familiar with Trump's remarks.

The FT reported that Trump also emphasized deregulation and a desire to use tariffs as a "negotiating tactic" with other countries.

Joe Biden, Trump's likely opponent in November's election, did not attend the Business Roundtable event as he is attending the G7 summit in Italy.

Standing in for the president, chief of staff Jeff Ziets emphasized the Biden administration's efforts to rebuild the economy in the aftermath of the pandemic and said the Federal Reserve's independence has boosted US capitalism, per AP.

The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Trump allies are drawing up plans to wrest control over some monetary policy decisions from the central bank.

While the former president's reputation on Wall Street hit rock bottom in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riots, top CEOs have softened their tone on him in recent months.

Dimon was highly critical of Trump when he left office but said earlier this year that the billionaire businessman — and now convicted felon — had been "kind of right" on some issues, including NATO and immigration.

• US President Joe Biden at the G7 pledged a decade of security support for Ukraine. 
• He said the US was not "backing down" in helping Ukraine fight Russia.
• But the promise may be worth less than it appears. 

At the G7 summit in Italy on Thursday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed a "historic" new 10-year security deal signed with US President Joe Biden.

Under the deal, the US will work with Ukraine for the next decade to boost its military capabilities, its defense industrial base, its economy, and its energy infrastructure.

The G7 also provided Ukraine with a much-needed $50 billion loan, which will be paid back using interest on frozen Russian assets.

A war of attrition

"We're not backing down," Biden said, warning Russia's President Vladimir Putin that "he cannot wait us out."

The move is an apparent response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's strategy for wearing down Ukrainian resistance and the support of its allies by waging a drawn-out war of attrition.

Putin on Friday said he'd be willing to discuss a peace deal in Ukraine if Kyiv renounces its bid for Nato membership and withdraws its troops from four contested regions.

Analysts warn that the Russian president's claims to be seeking peace talks ought to be treated with skepticism. Ukraine is also highly unlikely to accept such conditions.

It seems the war will continue to be a long, drawn-out conflict.

Hollow promises

US support is key to preventing a Ukrainian defeat. However, the US security deal stops short of providing Ukraine with the path to NATO membership it's long requested.

The pledge signed by Biden is also an "executive agreement, rather than a formal treaty, meaning it can undone by a future president.

Republican candidate Donald Trump holds a narrow lead over Biden in recent polls and has offered, at best, ambiguous commitments to continue helping to defend Ukraine if elected.

He's criticized the amount of money the US is spending on the war and promised to end it, yet offered few details on how.

The deal also contains few concrete financial pledges, instead committing the White House to work with Congress to secure the funding to meet its security commitments to Ukraine.

This won't prove easy. For several months in 2023 and early 2024, a faction of isolationist Republicans in Congress held up a $61 billion Ukraine aid bill.

During that time, Ukraine saw its ammunition supplies running perilously low, and Russia threatened to break through Ukrainian defensive lines.

A divided Congress

In a Congress starkly divided along partisan lines, Biden, even if he wins in November, may find it difficult to build a consensus for new Ukraine aid bills.

Zelenskyy acknowledged the difficulties in his remarks at the G7. "For how long will the unity in the world remain? The unity in the US, together with European leaders," he said, with elections scheduled in several states that have provided support for Ukraine.

But Zelenskyy had a stark warning on the potential consequences if Western countries fail to meet their commitment to help Ukraine battle Russian aggression.

"If Ukraine does not withstand, the democracy of many countries, I am sure, won't withstand either," he said.

• Elon Musk knows his people back him.
• Tesla shareholders voted in favor of his huge pay package on Thursday.
• He'll now have to prove Tesla is his top priority if he wants them to keep backing him.

The people have given Elon Musk what he wants. They'll now expect him to return the favor.

On Thursday, the billionaire jumped for joy at Tesla's annual meeting in Austin as the outcome of a high-stakes, long-anticipated vote went entirely in his favor — thanks to his people.

Not only did Musk get shareholder approval for his huge pay package — a compensation deal agreed on by Tesla's board in 2018 that was voided by a Delaware court judge in January — but he also won approval to reincorporate the company in Texas.

"Hot damn, I love you guys!" was Musk's message to a crowd of buzzing retail investors who earned the opportunity to see the electric vehicle boss up close in person through a random draw.

Hours later, he showed his gratitude to shareholders again by posting a picture to X of a cake with the words "Vox Populi, Vox Dei" written on it. The Latin phrase roughly translates to "the voice of the people is the voice of God."

Though Musk still has to fight the Delaware court to reverse the decision on his pay package — and faced sharp criticisms over his pay from top shareholders, including Norway's sovereign wealth fund — he'll be aware that the majority vote in favor of it is a vote of confidence from his people in his leadership, too.

He'd be wise not to take that for granted, however. Musk's leadership of Tesla has been built on wildly ambitious promises that his backers will now expect him to deliver on.

Doing that will mean making Tesla his top priority.

Big promises

Among the biggest promises Musk has made to Tesla fans is a revolutionary step forward in autonomous driving.

Earlier this year, he fueled huge anticipation on that front among the Tesla base by getting them to mark August 8 in their calendars as the date that he'll be ready to reveal the company's first robotaxi.

For years, the Tesla chief has teased a full-self-driving (FSD) car, suggesting in 2021 that "the day FSD goes to wide release will be one of the biggest asset value increases in history."

Shareholders and fanboys will expect him to deliver, with expectations high.

In a research note on Thursday, analysts at Wedbush wrote that with "the next chapter in the Tesla growth story around autonomous and FSD" on the horizon, the company's valuation could surge past $1 trillion in 2025.

Musk thinks FSD could take Tesla a whole lot further. During Thursday's shareholder meeting, the Tesla chief made the audacious claim that Tesla could reach a $30 trillion market capitalization in the future, factoring in its future robotics and AI plans.

Tesla is now worth around $582 billion. Its market capitalization peaked at about $1.2 trillion in November 2021. Musk has given himself a huge gulf to cross.

That's especially so as autonomous driving has proven a difficult technological challenge to crack for the automotive industry at a global scale, so there's no guarantee FSD will help Musk reach his destination.

Stretched responsibilities

Wall Street might prefer it if he focused on worrying trends that have emerged in Tesla vehicle deliveries recently.

Musk, who once promised that Tesla could sell 20 million cars a year by 2030, has faced criticism over his stretched responsibilities across companies including X, SpaceX and xAI at a time when Tesla sales have shown signs of weakness.

In April, Tesla revealed that it had sold around 386,000 cars in the first quarter of 2024, marking a 20% drop from the preceding three months.

If Musk is serious about turning that around, he'll need to get focused and prove to Tesla fans that his plans around AI, robotics and more will all help reignite demand for his vehicles.

They'll be banking on it.

• Microsoft has scaled back its Recall AI feature for Copilot+ PCs.
• This was after privacy campaigners raised red flags about some of Recall's screenshot capabilities.
• Google and Adobe have also rolled back some of their big AI releases following backlash.

In its race to do more with AI, Big Tech has been moving fast — and then rolling back big moves.

Microsoft became the latest to scale back an artificial intelligence feature within one month of announcing it, following backlash.

On Thursday, Microsoft said it will withdraw an AI tool from its new line of computers called Copilot+ PCs. The feature will now only be accessible to a small group of people who are part of its Windows Insider Program instead of being broadly available for Copilot+ PC users on June 18.

The AI feature is called Recall and acts like the computer's "photographic memory"—it can take screenshots of everything the user looks at on their PC and help them quickly find where they stored something from a conversational prompt.

But privacy campaigners raised the alarm about Microsoft's Recall feature almost immediately. They were put off by the idea that the device could take screenshots of their user activity every few seconds.

Microsoft, for its part, has said that users can turn off the feature and that the images are only stored internally.

"We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security," the company wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Big Tech firms, though, seem to be launching headlong into rolling out AI features quickly, then making U-turns when things get messy.

Take, for instance, recent events at Google, Adobe, and OpenAI. To be sure, each company has provided its reasons for walkbacks — but all the firms have had to re-examine rollouts post-release.

In May, Google scaled back the use of AI-generated answers in search results called AI overviews. This was after the feature made some jarring errors, including advising users to put glue in their pizza sauce. Google also pulled the plug on AI-generated facial images in February after the Gemini tool created images rife with historical inaccuracies.

"We have already made more than a dozen technical updates to our systems, and we're committed to continuing to improve when and how we show AI Overviews," a representative for Google told BI.

Also in May, OpenAI launched a voice option, Sky, that sounded "eerily similar" to Scarlett Johansson, angering the actress. The ChatGPT-maker said it wasn't Johansson's voice, apologized, then removed the voice from its platform.

Earlier this week, Adobe joined the club. It sent users a re-acceptance of its "Terms of Use," which led some people to think AI would scrape their art and content. Some Adobe employees questioned the company's communication skills, and the company has since delayed its rollout of updated changes.

"This has caused us to reflect on the language we use in our Terms, and the opportunity we have to be clearer and address the concerns raised by the community," Adobe wrote in a blog post on Monday.

Representatives for Adobe and OpenAI did not respond to BI's requests for comment sent outside normal business hours.

• Restaurant executives say California's $20 wage for fast-food workers has brought them at least one clear advantage.
• More people are applying for jobs and they can get better-quality candidates.
• The fast-food industry had fiercely fought the legislation.

Restaurant executives told Business Insider that California's new $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers has at least one clear silver lining for their businesses: Better-quality candidates are applying for jobs.

California raised its minimum wage for workers at limited-service chains with at least 60 locations nationwide by 25% to $20 an hour on April 1. Restaurants have raised menu prices, turned to technology, and looked for other operational efficiencies to offset the impact of higher wages.

"If there's a silver lining in all that, it's it's greatly improved the availability of labor for QSR [quick-service restaurants] at least temporarily in California," Jim Holthouser, CEO of GoTo Foods, which owns brands including Cinnabon, Auntie Anne's, Jamba, and Moe's Southwest Grill, told Business Insider.

"You can go to a QSR restaurant and you're now paid $20 an hour," he said.

Betsy Schmandt, COO and president of A&W Restaurants, echoed Holthouser's views.

"We're seeing actually a big influx of labor coming to our restaurants," she said. "People are moving from other industries into restaurants because of this. So we're actually seeing an increase in quality of labor."

But the effects of this could be short-lived, as restaurants that are exempt from the legislation and businesses in other industries are expected to boost the wages of low-paying roles to compete with QSR chains for workers.

The minimum wage was introduced to help fast-food workers cope with California's astronomical living costs. Some workers in the industry work multiple jobs to make ends meet. But the legislation faced fierce opposition from the industry, including trade associations and leading chains, who argued that it would cost jobs and make fast food unaffordable.

Holthouser said that the new wage had "forced" GoTo Foods' restaurants in California to raise prices, but added that it had also pushed the company to innovate and think about ways to cut costs, including through technology.

Schmandt said that A&W's restaurants had raised prices in California to cover the new wage, but that a lot of their staff had been making "pretty close to the $20 already, so it wasn't a huge leap." Digital kiosks could help take some of the labor pressure off, she said.

Are you a fast-food worker, franchisee, or restaurant manager in California? Email this reporter at gdean@insider.com.

• I've been on dates with guys who brought their dogs; some keep their dogs around while hooking up.
• Some of my dates are put-off by my lack of interest in their dogs. 
• I've accepted that my disinterest in pups is a turn off.

I used to pretend to like people's dogs.

From a young age, I learned it was socially unacceptable not to want to rub their bellies and tell them they're "good boys." Unfortunately, I wasn't talented at feigning interest in humans — nonetheless, four-legged animals.

But I didn't expect my ambivalence toward dogs to be a dealbreaker in my adult dating life.

I once dated a guy who treated his dog like his child

I remember dating a guy, who I had noticed on Grindr for a while and manifested into messaging me. I used to suck at hitting on people first. Long story short, we had a couple of great nights out until he finally invited me over.

"There's someone I want you to meet," he said.

"Oh," I replied, deciphering if the vibes indicated a roommate or partner.

Instead, a large furry creature from hell came slobbering all over me.

"Nice," I said, easing my way to the couch.

My date tried to put the moves on me with the dog going apeshit around us. This was not a threesome I could get on board with, so I asked him if he could put it in the other room.

"It?" he asked, taking his hand off my crotch.

I quickly corrected myself, "He!"

"She," he said, but more lightheartedly, resuming position.

It was a familiar situation. By this point, I knew people didn't like me to refer to their dogs as objects. But I thought it was creepy that they wanted me to treat animals like children unless we were hooking up. I reminded David about putting the dog away, and he obliged.

The next day, he wanted me to accompany him and the dog to the park. I confessed I wasn't the biggest dog person, and he ghosted me.

I can't escape people's obsession with dogs

I felt like being part of the LGBTQ+ community freed me from having kids, but as I entered my late 20s, I noticed many gay men seemingly waking up with the sudden maternal instinct to adopt a pet. The pandemic exacerbated the dog problem in America. Well, I suppose it's only a problem for me and folks who don't watch where they step.

Don't get me wrong: I don't hate dogs.

I think it's a fine decision to take ownership of an animal — feeding them and cleaning up after their excretions daily for the rest of their life. But, as glamorous as it sounds, I don't share the innate obsession with dogs many people seem to have.

I always considered my way of being preferable to the people who stop every dog owner on the street and speak to their creature in baby language, with no regard for the stranger in front of them.

I'd like to blame my disinterest on my childhood Rottweiler, who pounced on my back when I was about 5 years old and smashed my head into the concrete. But truthfully, I just don't care for pets beyond acknowledging they are adorable.

Just as I'd prefer someone to compliment me without tousling my hair, I give animals the same respect. That's frustratingly not good enough for some of my partners.

I know this trait is a turn-off for most

Recently, I went on a first date with a 23-year-old who brought his Golden Retriever with him. It was my first time going out with a younger guy — and sober — so the animal humping my leg was about to send me into relapse.

The Meat Loaf song lyrics "I will do anything for love" played in my head, "but I won't do that."

The 23-year-old chatted away. Hearing all the nonsense that came out of his mouth, oblivious to the literal horndog below us, assured me it wouldn't have worked anyway.

I've learned that you can't force relationships the hard way, so I accept when my indifference toward pets might turn their parents off, even after sparks are in the air.

In affairs of the heart, it always saves time to be politely direct. Ironically, some say it's why animals, especially cats, like me.

My friend once had me babysit Queen Suzy, an 18-year-old Chihuahua, for a month while she visited her mom in Europe. This included providing the rebellious four-legged royal medicine with a syringe twice daily and constantly changing her diaper.

This is my biggest secret: If I love you, I will begrudgingly love your dog, too.

• A Boeing 737 Max has been out of service since May 25.
• The Southwest Airlines jet encountered a rare stability problem called a Dutch roll.
• A post-flight inspection found damage to the power control unit, which controls the rudder.

A Boeing 737 Max has been out of service for 20 days as officials investigate an in-flight incident.

The Southwest Airlines jet was flying from Phoenix to Oakland on May 25 when it ran into a rare but potentially serious problem.

An incident report filed Wednesday by the Federal Aviation Administration says the "aircraft experienced a Dutch roll."

A Dutch roll describes a plane rocking from side to side and changing in yaw — the direction the nose is facing — simultaneously resembling a horizontal figure-eight pattern.

It can be particularly nauseating for passengers, and Dutch roll has been cited in accidents after pilots were unable to regain control of the aircraft. Pilots are trained in how to counter it, and modern airliners are built with a system called a yaw damper to try to prevent it.

The video below shows an aircraft (not the Southwest 737 Max) experiencing a Dutch roll:

Luckily, in the Southwest incident, pilots regained control of the 737 Max. The FAA's report added that the post-flight inspection revealed damage to the standby PCU (power control unit), which controls the rudder. No injuries were reported.

Data from FlightAware shows the jet, which is less than two years old, remained in Oakland for 12 days following the incident. It was then flown to Everett, Washington, where Southwest has a maintenance facility.

The FAA is investigating the cause of the incident.

It's a less-than-ideal situation for Boeing, with the planemaker experiencing a crisis following January's Alaska Airlines blowout involving a 737 Max. The Max has faced increased scrutiny ever since it was involved in two crashes in 2018 and 2019, when a combined 346 people died.

Boeing and Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider outside US working hours.

• Virginia Hambrick is retired and lives on her $1,625 monthly Social Security income with her husband.
• Millions of older adults are facing financial challenges as many have limited retirement assets.
• As Hambrick struggles to afford rent and food, she worries she will have to return to work.

Virgina Hambrick used her last $40 to visit urgent care. She hoped to avoid spending the money, but her bronchitis symptoms were getting worse and she needed to see a doctor.

She felt healthier a week later, but limited health insurance means the urgent care co-pay took all the cash she had left. Hambrick's spending money is gone, her bank account is overdrawn, and she's "sitting around wishing it was two weeks from now" when she can cash her next Social Security check.

"I don't even have $1 in my wallet," she told Business Insider.

The 66-year-old lives in a rural area about 50 miles outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma with her husband. They both live off her $1,625 monthly Social Security income, according to documents reviewed by BI. Hambrick retired several years ago, and her husband hasn't had an income recently because he was caring for sick relatives. He's also 57 and not old enough to receive Social Security, which typically kicks in at 62.

The couple's home is miles from the nearest grocery store, and it's difficult to go places because Hambrick can't afford a car. As bills keep piling up, Hambrick is worried she will have to go back to work — something that seems impossible without transportation.

Millions of Americans are in a similar position. Like ALICEs — people who are asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed — Hambrick doesn't qualify for most forms of government assistance, despite struggling to afford basic necessities.

As the country faces a retirement crisis, older adults like Hambrick are especially vulnerable to financial challenges. Fifty-two percent of boomers have $250,000 or less in retirement assets, per an April report from the Retirement Income Institute, the retirement-focused research arm of the Alliance for Lifetime Income. The Census Bureau's Current Population Survey found that more than half of Americans over 65 have an annual income of $30,000 or less.

And, while over half of older adult households rely on Social Security, the fund could run out by 2030.

Hambrick's family was "extremely comfortable" with money throughout her childhood, but her daily expenses as an adult are a constant struggle. She's losing hope her financial situation will ever change.

"I just keep putting one foot in front of the other," she said. "I don't want to be living under a bridge."

Hambrick "never imagined" she would be struggling financially

For Hambrick, hundreds of dollars a month in rent, utility, internet, and cellphone bills are difficult to afford on her Social Security income. She and her husband live in a house that has "16 different health code violations — and those are just the ones I've seen," she said, adding that they will likely have to move soon.

She had a retirement account from her former manufacturing job at Boeing. But, as money began to grow tight, she decided to withdraw her Boeing retirement funds to pay bills and unexpected expenses. She has worked in various jobs throughout her career, and left her most recent role in the hotel industry a couple of years ago.

The couple now receives about $100 a month in SNAP food benefits. It helps them afford groceries, but they have to spend another $100 every month on things SNAP doesn't cover, like toilet paper, dish soap, and laundry detergent.

Hambrick's refrigerator died in early June, causing nearly $300 worth of food to spoil. She doesn't have the money to replace it, so she and her husband "eat a lot of ramen noodles."

Although she qualifies for some Medicare benefits, Hambrick said her income is considered too high for Medicaid, meaning she doesn't have health insurance for emergency or long-term care. She avoids going to the doctor, but medicine still costs about $150 a month out-of-pocket. There's also a lot of confusing paperwork, she said.

Hambrick thinks she will have to return to work soon. She said she has multiple graduate degrees, is a former community college professor, and has decades of experience in the manufacturing and customer service industries. Hambrick "doesn't care" what she does next because it's difficult to get hired as an older adult.

However, she can't afford the car payment or gas to drive anywhere for an interview or regular shift. And, even if she could get hired, Hambrick said she can't have a role that requires her to stand all day or lift heavy items because of her health.

"If somebody wants to work around my limitations, then they would have a totally dedicated employee," Hambrick said.

At this point in her life, she feels like she should be traveling to new places and having fun with her husband in retirement. She "never imagined" she would get to this point, she said.

"I spend my money on the same thing that everybody else spends their money on," Hambrick said. "The only problem is my money is probably half of what everybody else has."

Are you an older adult living paycheck to paycheck or on Social Security? Are you open to sharing how you spend your money? If so, reach out to this reporter at allisonkelly@businessinsider.com.

• Sweden has promised Ukraine its first-ever airborne control and surveillance aircraft.
• Experts told BI the planes will boost the effectiveness of Ukraine's promised F-16s.
• The control aircraft can scan widely to locate targets and threats. 

The arrival of a new type of aircraft for Ukraine will give it an advantage it's not had before, and will help boost the effectiveness of its promised F-16s, experts told Business Insider.

Sweden announced late last month that it is giving Ukraine two ASC 890 airborne control and surveillance aircraft, which act as command centers in the air.

They detect enemy aircraft, missiles, and drones from afar and coordinate responses to attacks.

The Swedish aircraft will be the first with this function Ukraine has had, giving it an ability that until now only Russia, with its much larger and more modern air force, has enjoyed.

A boost for Ukraine

Tim Robinson, a military aviation specialist at the UK's Royal Aeronautical Society, told BI the Swedish aircraft, linked in with the F-16s, "will be a game changer in terms of the situational awareness, the live radar picture."

He said the planes would "give the Ukrainians earlier warning of where drone and missile strikes are coming in from. That will be a huge advantage."

Sweden's defense minister, Pal Jonson, said the aircraft will "complement and reinforce the F-16 systems."

Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and defense strategy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told BI the aircraft can be very valuable because they "can see much further and then help direct aircraft towards the greatest threats."

Meanwhile, Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and a former Royal Australian Air Force officer, said they will be able to direct Ukraine's fighter jets, so "coordination and command and control will be dramatically improved."

They remain highly vulnerable

During the war, Russia has been using its own A-50 Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft to monitor Ukraine's air space and coordinate attacks.

But Ukraine destroyed one A-50 in January, and said it shot down another one the following month. A Ukrainian defense official said in April that Russia only had six A-50s left.

These losses show how vulnerable — and how much of a prize — aircraft like these are.

Aircraft like this "are very vulnerable to fighter aircraft and to missile attack," Layton said, adding that in war "everybody wants to kill the early warning aircraft."

Cancian said Russia would be "very interested" in destroying them.

He also warned that the planes are "extraordinarily complex," beyond anything Ukraine is used to.

Ukraine will likely keep the aircraft together

Layton said he expects the command planes to hang back so their radars can detect incoming drones and cruise missiles, giving F-16s "very accurate targeting."

The experts said hanging back is also likely the best approach for Ukraine's first F-16s, so the jets can protect cities and infrastructure while staying away from most of Russia's weaponry.

Ukraine won't have enough, at least initially, to justify a very forward use for them, they said.

A Ukrainian official said last month that the first F-16s are due in June or July, matching comments made by Denmark, which said the first jets are due this summer.

Ukraine has been promised about 85 jets by Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium. However, it's not clear how many will arrive in the first wave.

Experts said the F-16s will be useful for Ukraine, but are unlikely to majorly change the war by themselves, particularly with only a small number so far committed.

But they will replenish aircraft losses, take down Russian drones and missiles, and perhaps launch some attacks into Russia-held territory, the experts said.

"Whenever they arrive, that's a good time for Ukraine," Cancian said.