Crisis in support
Denmark stops training Ukrainians on F-16 fighter jets
25.06.2024, 08:54
According to the Danish Minister of Defense, the training program for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets will expire at the end of the year. Although this had been previously indicated due to the switch to a new model, it is symbolic of the many problems of the Western initiative.
Denmark will end its training program for Ukrainian F-16 pilots at the end of the year because of its switch to F-35 aircraft. This was stated by Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen at a press conference, according to media reports. “We will switch to the F-35, so we have to focus our energy on that and therefore cannot continue training Ukrainian pilots after 2024,” the politician said.
The western F-16 coalition must look for alternative locations to continue its activities, said Poulsen. There are other training programs in Romania and the USA. But there has been no good news from there recently either.
Earlier this month, Politico reported that Ukraine had 30 pilots ready to begin training in the United States immediately. However, the United States told Kyiv that there were not enough places in the Arizona training program to accept more than 12 candidates at once. The United States is training F-16 pilots at several bases, according to the report, but has cited its obligations to other countries that could be eligible for training.
Denmark has promised to deliver 19 fighter jets to Ukraine. After the pilot program is completed, “around” 20 will have been trained, said Troels Lund Poulsen. It is still unclear how many F-16 fighter jets Ukraine will be able to deploy this year.
Ukraine faces pilot problem
There are enough promises of aircraft: In addition to the 19 from Denmark, at least 24 will come from the Netherlands, and Kiev will also receive additional F-16s from Norway and Belgium. However, it is questionable when enough pilots will be available. A former employee of the US Department of Defense told Politico that only 20 Ukrainian F-16 pilots would probably complete their training by the end of this year.
The first group of Ukrainian F-16 pilots recently completed their training in the USA and, according to the US Air Force, went to Europe for further training. This summer they should be ready to fly combat missions against Russian air forces. But the pilots will probably only be introduced to these slowly.
Training on western aircraft, which the Ukrainians are unfamiliar with, is time-consuming and expensive. If there really aren’t enough training capacities available in the future to train many pilots, the F-16 initiative is in danger of losing momentum. Overall, Ukraine can – in the best case scenario – hope to have around 100 of the modern combat aircraft in the next few years.
Another ray of hope for Ukraine came a few weeks ago when French President Macron surprised everyone with the announcement that he would hand over Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Kyiv this year and also provide a rapid training program for pilots.