The US Air Force has officially announced that it has no places to train more than 12 pilots for 2023-2024. Denmark will train eight pilots by the end of the year. And in Romania, preparations for the start of studies are still ongoing.
Points of attention
- Ukraine expects assistance from Western countries, particularly France, in training F-16 pilots and providing technical support, with promises of Mirage 2000 military aircraft transfers.
- Experts highlight the importance of having a full squadron of trained F-16 pilots for effective operations in conflict zones and ensuring state security.
- Despite initial limitations on F-16 missions in the Russian-Ukrainian war, a full squadron could play a crucial role in inflicting damage on the enemy's territory with proper allocation of resources and missiles.
- Negotiations are underway among Western countries to determine the allocation of missiles to support Ukraine without depleting their own arsenals.
Ukraine demands from partner countries and other countries to intensify the training of F-16 pilots
Ukraine says it has 30 pilots who are eligible to begin training in the US immediately. However, the Biden administration has told Kiev that its Arizona program does not have room for more than 12 pilot trainees at a time, according to three people directly familiar with the request.
Denmark and Romania have a similar problem with affordable study places.
Therefore, it is expected that only 20 Ukrainian F-16 pilots will graduate by the end of this year.
One of the former officials said that at this rate, Ukraine will not have a full squadron of trained pilots by the end of 2025.
The American military at various levels now emphasize that the F-16 will not change much in the Russian-Ukrainian war. That at first their mission will be limited to shooting down missiles and drones and that they will not approach the front line, because there the means of Russian electronic warfare will easily shoot them down.
However, this is true only for a small number of aircraft, the interlocutors of the publication claim.
If a full squadron of F-16s is involved in an operation, say, in the Kharkiv Region, dividing the tasks among themselves, then they will be able to inflict effective damage on the enemy, in particular, on its territory.
Much of this depends on the missiles that will be allocated for the aircraft transferred to Ukraine. Now the countries of the West are already negotiating among themselves how many missiles each of them is ready to allocate to Ukraine, so as not to deplete their own warehouses.
Macron promised to transfer Mirage 2000 military aircraft to Ukraine
The Armed Forces will be reinforced by French aircraft. This was stated by French President Emmanuel Macron, Le Figaro reports.
France is helping the Ukrainians to resist, but we do not want escalation.
Emmanuel Macron
President of France
Macron added that on June 7, during his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, he is going to start a new cooperation.
It is about providing Ukraine with Mirage 2000 aircraft, as well as pilot training.
According to him, the pilot training program will be launched so that they will be ready by the end of the year.
