The Defense Ministers of Romania and the Netherlands have finally agreed on the creation of a training center for F-16 pilots and the maintenance of these aircraft.
This was reported by the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands on August 30.
The base will be on the territory of Romania. The American company Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of these aircraft, will be involved in its work. Lockheed Martin has experience maintaining the F-16 and has already conducted training in other countries. First, instructors for pilots and technical personnel will be trained at the Romanian base, and then Ukrainian specialists will be trained.
- Romania officially confirmed its participation in the training of Ukrainian pilots on August 16. Currently, pilot training has started in Great Britain and Denmark.
- The Netherlands, Denmark and Norway have already agreed to transfer the planes to Ukraine. The Netherlands will transfer all of its F-16s (42 in total) to Ukraine, but a "small part" will be for training. Denmark will transfer 19 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine and expects the first batch to arrive closer to the New Year. The number of aircraft that Norway will transfer is still unknown.
- The Air Force states that Ukraine needs 128 fighters in total. This number of aircraft will completely replace the old aircraft fleet.