The Netherlands will transfer all its F-16s to Ukraine. However, a “small part of them” will be for exercises

The Netherlands has 42 F-16 fighter jets — most of them will be transferred to Ukraine, some will be kept for training Ukrainian pilots. The exact number is not announced.

The Minister of Defense of the Netherlands Kaisu Ollongren told about this in an interview with "Europeiska Pravda” ["European Truth"].

"We donʼt need the F-16s anymore because weʼre transitioning to the newer F-35s. But because of the war in Ukraine, we decided at a certain point that we will not sell these F-16 fighters anyway, but will keep them available. And now we are handing over almost all of them to Ukraine, with the exception of a few planes that will be used to train Ukrainian pilots. We have a total of 42 aircraft. A small part of them will go to study, and the rest will go to the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Kaisu Ollongren explained.

Ukraine must fulfill the requirements of the Netherlands, in particular, prepare the crews and infrastructure, and then it will be able to receive the planes. "With this in mind, we are realistically counting on next year," added the Minister of Defense.

• The Netherlands and Denmark are the first countries to announce that they will transfer F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Denmark will provide 19 aircraft and expects the first batch to arrive closer to the New Year. On August 24, Norway informed about its decision to transfer fighter jets to Ukraine (the number is still unknown).
• Ukrainian pilots have already started F-16 training in Great Britain and Denmark. These countries led the coalition for the training of Ukrainian pilots, which also included Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Sweden. The training center will also be in Romania.