During his visit to Ukraine, Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonsson told his colleague Oleksiy Reznikov that Ukrainian pilots would be able to practice on Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighters.
He told TV4 Nyheterna about it.
According to the Swedish minister, Ukrainian pilots will undergo basic training first on simulators and then on the JAS 39 Gripen aircraft themselves.
At the same time, Sweden is currently not going to hand over its fighter jets to Ukraine because they are "needed for our own national defense," Pål Jonson said.
The Swedish Minister of Defense arrived in Ukraine to visit military units that already use Swedish defense equipment. He also met with President Zelensky.
- On May 16, Great Britain announced the start of an international coalition of countries that will train Ukrainian pilots to fly fourth-generation Western fighter jets, including the F-16. Pilot training will begin in the coming months. Norway will also join the exercises.
- On May 20, the White House confirmed that in the following months, the US and its allies would discuss when and how many fighter jets Ukraine will receive. The US agreed to the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine.
- On May 21, US President Joe Biden confirmed that the United States would begin training Ukrainian pilots in the near future. The American report says that two Ukrainian aces on F-16 simulators exceeded the expectations of the United States. There, they believe that they will be able to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 in four months instead of 18, as previously planned.
- On May 23, the Pentagon announced that the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine would begin in at least a few months. And this is based on an optimistic scenario. However, this is quite a short period of time, as it usually takes more than two years to train a new American pilot to operate such an aircraft.
- F-16 will be delivered to Ukraine in units, not individually. At the initial stage, several dozen of these aircraft may be transferred. Earlier, the adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Yuriy Sak, said that Ukraine wants to receive 40 to 50 F-16 fighters to form three or four squadrons.