Ukraine may receive its first F-16s in July, but the number of aircraft is limited

Western allies promised to provide Ukraine with fighter jets last year, but the delivery process and pilot training proved to be more complicated than previously expected. Ukraine may start by receiving only six planes out of the approximately 45 promised, the New York Times reports.

The new training center in Romania is ready to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s, but Ukrainian pilots have not even started training at the Fătesti air base yet, and we will discuss why below. Nevertheless, after 10 months of training in Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the 12 best Ukrainian pilots should be ready for the summer.

However, when the pilots return to Ukraine, the number of F-16s delivered will be minimal – about six out of the promised 45. These fighters are important for Ukraine, as Russia is using more aggressive air support for its occupation forces in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine needs more weapons as it is running out of artillery shells. The F-16s are likely to be equipped with short- and medium-range missiles and bombs, but this will help on the battlefield.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized the importance of obtaining new fighter jets to protect against Russian threats. The training of pilots and technicians continues, although the process has been slower than expected due to the need to master English and Western military practices.

Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium have promised to provide approximately 45 F-16s, but the exact delivery dates and the number of aircraft to be provided at once remain uncertain.

Denmark intends to deliver the first six aircraft in late spring, with additional deliveries throughout the year and until 2025. The preparation and delivery of the F-16 is considered critical to supporting Ukraine in its fight for freedom and protection from Russian aggression.

There is also a problem with the infrastructure and maintenance of new aircraft. In addition to Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium have also pledged to send about 45 F-16s to Ukraine, enough for three small squadrons. Denmark will send the first six in late spring, with 13 others to arrive during the rest of the year until 2025. That is, by the end of the year, Ukraine should have 19 aircraft.

But not everything is so good. Ukraine is not ready to accept them because there are no runways for this type of aircraft. Work in this area is progressing, but slowly. Therefore, the Netherlands, which has promised a total of 24 aircraft, will keep them until Ukraine is ready to receive them, said Jurijan Esser, spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Defense.

In addition, about 50 Ukrainian technicians are being trained in Denmark to maintain and repair the aircraft and service their weapons, given that F-16s are so complex that each one usually requires 8 to 14 people to service. Officials said Western defense contractors would have to escort the planes into Ukraine and stay with them until there are enough Ukrainian crews to properly maintain them – a process that could take years, as discussed below.

Ukraine was not ready for Western practices of pilot training in principle

Ukraine’s system of training pilots, both civilian and military, is completely Soviet. And while the training of civilian pilots is a little better, as many aviation schools were opened before the war according to ICAO and EASA standards, military aviation was left far behind in the total Soviet Union. And nothing was done about it. In Ukraine, to become a pilot, you need to study for 5+ years at a university, which teaches general education programs for the first three years. That is, it takes a lot of years to become a pilot, among other very strange requirements.

This situation changed for civilian pilots, when many pilots were needed quickly in a growing economy. Therefore, against great resistance from officials, civil aviation has moved ahead and adopted the training program used in the West as a basis. Of course, with the outbreak of the war, these schools were mostly closed, due to the closed skies and the inability of men to travel abroad for flying practice.

How pilots are trained in Western countries

To become a pilot in Western countries, you need to go through a fairly standard path. The first is to get a so-called private pilot’s license (PPL), which is the basis for teaching pilots the basic points and laws of physics, which, by the way, are the same for civil aviation and military aviation. The basic training also includes piloting small airplanes so that the student understands the principles of flight and how the aircraft behaves in the air.

Once future pilots have received the basics and their first license, the path can be divided into military and civilian. Unfortunately, the Soviet education system completely neglects these basics. By the way, in order to obtain this first license, you usually need to learn at least basic English. That’s why everyone in the West teaches it, regardless of where the pilots go to study later. Until recently, military pilots in Ukraine were not taught English at all.

In the United States, for example, to start training to become a fighter pilot, you need to have at least a bachelor’s degree from any university, not necessarily a specialized one, as in Ukraine. That is, cadets first study at a regular university, and only then apply to the US Air Force. The training period after joining the Air Force usually takes 2-3 years. By the way, a PPL license can speed up F-16 training for an ordinary American.

What is happening in Ukraine

As we have noted, to become a military pilot in Ukraine, you need to go through a complex, long-term Soviet machine that will train great pilots, but only for Soviet aircraft. Therefore, Ukraine is currently facing a huge problem of retraining pilots for Western aircraft types.

Also, because it is a Soviet system and does not want to change, the selection of pilots for training on Western equipment is extremely difficult. This could be solved by using civilian pilots who already know English and the piloting base. But, again, this is a Soviet system that hates civilians and doesn’t let anyone near it.

A very illustrative example is what happened at the beginning of the war. This case was not disclosed and became known to Sundries from its own sources.

So, a Ukrainian civilian pilot, motivated to defend his homeland, applied to a so-called recruitment center and provided all the documents confirming that he was a pilot. The recruiting center sent him to the infantry to fight in the hottest spots of the frontline, because, according to the military, a civilian has no military specialty, so he is an ordinary infantry rifleman. Our pilot, of course, did not agree with this, and sent inquiries and requests directly to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Air Force… but after a while, the answer came that there were enough pilots and the Air Force did not need others. But for some reason, the air base in Romania has been without Ukrainian pilots for six months. And unfortunately, due to the Soviet system in the Ukrainian army, they are dying on the frontline like infantry. And these are not isolated cases…

Summarizing the above, the problem with providing F-16s is not so much the Western partners, but the fact that Ukraine is unable or unwilling to get rid of the Soviet past in its government structures, training system, and especially in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, where the Soviet system of command and control of troops has been completely preserved.