The Netherlands may provide Ukraine with its F-16 fighter jets after Ukrainian pilots are trained. The countryʼs government is discussing this possibility with its allies.
Bloomberg writes about this with reference to sources familiar with the situation.
The army of the Netherlands has 42 F-16 fighters. Of them, 24 are used, the rest, although not used, remain airworthy thanks to regular maintenance.
In December, the Netherlands delayed without explanation the sale of ten fighter jets not flown by Dutch pilots to Dra ken International, citing commercial confidentiality.
The spokeswoman of the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands said that the government will consider the delivery of F-16s to Ukraine later, because now the priority is pilot training.
- Denmark and the Netherlands headed the European group for training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16. They will be the first countries to begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets, other countries will join later.
- On May 16, Britain informed about the start of an international coalition of countries that will train Ukrainian pilots to fly fourth-generation Western fighter jets, including the F-16. The coalition included the USA, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Portugal. Pilot training will begin in the coming months.
- On May 20, the White House confirmed that in the following months, the US and its allies will discuss when and how many fighter jets Ukraine will receive. The US agreed to the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine.
- On May 21, the US President Joe Biden confirmed that the United States will 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 will 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.