Ukraine could deploy a few F-16s by July
Delay caused by deliveries, pilot training
FETESTI, Romania — The jets are ready, and the flight instructors are waiting, at a new training center in Romania that was created to teach Ukraine’s pilots to fly the F-16 warplane. But there’s a catch: The Ukrainian pilots have yet to arrive, despite declarations last summer that the center would play a crucial role in getting them into the air to defend their country from increasingly deadly Russian strikes.
It’s still unclear when Ukrainian pilots will begin training at the center, at the Fetesti air base in southeast Romania, which NATO allies also are using to get schooled on the fighter jets. But the delay is a window into the confusion and chaos that has confronted the military alliance’s rush to supply the F-16s.
That is not to say that Ukraine’s pilots are not being prepared. Twelve pilots — fewer than a full squadron — are expected to be ready to fly F-16s in combat by this summer after 10 months of training in Denmark, Britain, and the United States.
But by the time the pilots return to Ukraine, as few as six F16s will have been delivered out of about 45 of the fighter jets that European allies have promised.
Nevertheless, their highly anticipated arrival over the battlefield will come not a moment too soon. Russia has employed more aggressive air support to gain ground in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, using its warplanes to send guided glide bombs over long distances into the Ukrainian front lines.
And Ukraine is desperate for more weapons, of any kind, as it runs low on artillery rounds and other ammunition while Republicans in Congress hold up additional US military aid. The F-16s would probably come armed with short- and mediumrange missiles and bombs, partially making up for the shortage of ground-based munitions.
“This year, new fighter jets will be in our skies, and we have to make this year an effective one in defending ourselves against Russian guided bombs, Russian aircraft and their missiles,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said March 1.
Yet, officials agreed that much uncertainty remains about when each country will send its jets, how many will be sent, how fast pilots can be trained, and how Ukraine will get enough people who can maintain the planes properly.
By normal standards, the training of Ukraine’s pilots on the sophisticated Western jets has proceeded at lightning speed, compressing years of classroom learning, simulations, and flight exercises into months.
Even so, it is moving more slowly than Ukraine or its allies had hoped, as pilots trained on Soviet-era planes and tactics have had to get up to speed on the English language and Western military practices to make effective use of the F-16s.
Denmark’s defense minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said in an email exchange that the “training is progressing well” and noted that Ukraine’s pilots were already flying over Danish airspace. But he said their learning curve “ultimately will decide the length of the training.”
Denmark was at the forefront of a European push last spring to provide Ukraine with F-16s. Ukrainian officials who had overcome Western resistance to supplying a long series of advanced weapons — artillery, air defense missiles, tanks — said the fighter jet was the last major weapon their fighters needed to help them prevail.
The Biden administration reluctantly gave in to Ukraine’s demands, allowing allies to provide the F-16s.
US officials have warned that the F-16s alone would not be decisive in the war, and that the training would take a considerable amount of time.
The Ukrainian pilots’ training began in August in southern Denmark, but their deficiencies in language skills and knowledge of Western flying techniques slowed things down. Not until January were the Ukrainian pilots ready to fly, Danish officials said.