Crisis support: Denmark stopped to train Ukrainians on F-16 fighter jets

Crisis support
Denmark stopped to train Ukrainians on F-16 fighter jets

June 25, 2024, 8:54 am

Listen to the article

According to the Danish defense minister, the training program for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets will end at the end of this year. While this has previously been pointed out as due to the transition to a new model, it is symptomatic of many of the problems with the Western venture.

Denmark will end its training program for Ukrainian F-16 pilots later this year as it transitions to the F-35. According to media reports, Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen made the announcement at a press conference. “We will switch to the F-35, so we must devote our energy to it, so we cannot continue training Ukrainian pilots after 2024,” the politician said.

Western F-16 alliances must seek alternative locations to continue operations, Poulsen said. There are other training programs in Romania and the United States. But lately there has been no good news from there.

Earlier this month, Politico reported that Ukraine has 30 pilots who could immediately begin training in the United States. However, the US told Kiev that the training program in Arizona did not have enough school places to accept more than twelve applicants at a time. According to the report, the United States is training F-16 pilots at several bases, but pointed out its obligations to other countries eligible for training.

Denmark has pledged to deliver 19 fighter jets to Ukraine. After completing the pilot program, “about” 20 people will have been trained, Trolls Lund Paulson said. It is not yet clear how many F-16 fighters Ukraine will be able to deploy this year.

Ukraine pilot faces problem

The planes have ample commitments: at least 24 are coming from the Netherlands, in addition to 19 from Denmark, and Kiev is also receiving additional F-16s from Norway and Belgium. But when there will be enough pilots is questionable. Only 20 Ukrainian F-16 pilots are expected to complete their training by the end of the year, a former US Department of Defense official told Politico.

The first group of Ukrainian F-16 pilots recently completed their training in the U.S. and headed to Europe for further training, the U.S. Air Force said. This summer they should be ready to fly combat missions against Russian air forces. But pilots will introduce this slowly.

Training for Western pilots unfamiliar to Ukrainians was long and expensive. The F-16 initiative will lose momentum significantly if it does not have sufficient training capacity to train many pilots in the future. Overall, Ukraine – in the best case scenario – can expect around 100 modern fighter jets in the next few years.

Another ray of hope emerged for the Russia-hit country a few weeks ago when French President Macron surprised people by announcing the delivery of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets and a fast-track training program for pilots.