The Pentagon stated on Thursday that it plans to start coaching Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets in the USA in September.
Protection Division officers stated final week that Ukrainian pilots can be skilled in the USA if a European coalition effort to instruct dozens of pilots, led by the Netherlands and Denmark, reached capability.
However the strategy is now altering to additionally carry a number of Ukrainian pilots and dozens of upkeep and different help personnel for coaching in the USA as quickly as Ukraine identifies them, Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, informed reporters.
“We need to do every thing we are able to to assist transfer this effort alongside as shortly as potential in help of Ukraine,” he stated.
The choice was introduced on Thursday, timed to Ukraine’s Independence Day.
However will probably be months, at the least, earlier than the F-16s are despatched to battle. It was solely final Thursday {that a} U.S. official stated the Biden administration would allow allies to send the American-designed jets to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s protection minister, Oleksii Reznikov, predicted this week that it will take six to seven months earlier than F-16s had been despatched to Ukraine, following coaching for the nation’s pilots and mandatory help workers. Which means the planes is not going to play a task in Ukraine’s present counteroffensive.
“That is in regards to the long-term help to Ukraine,” Common Ryder stated. “This isn’t in regards to the counteroffensive that they’re conducting proper now.”
The pilots will first obtain English-language coaching at Lackland Air Drive Base in San Antonio, Texas, in September. Then in October, they’ll begin months of flight coaching from the Air Nationwide Guard’s 162nd Wing at Morris Air Nationwide Guard Base in Tucson, Ariz., which has skilled aviators from 25 nations, Common Ryder stated.
The Ukrainian pilots will take a number of programs, the final stated, together with fundamental flight maneuvers and weapons in addition to extra superior instruction in fight ways. It might take 5 to eight months to certify every pilot, relying on their earlier flying expertise, he stated.
“We’re going to work as quick as we are able to,” Common Ryder stated. “However what you don’t need to do is rush a pilot and practice them in a high-performance fight plane, after which put them in hurt’s method not totally ready.”
A small variety of Ukrainian pilots had acquired coaching in the USA earlier than President Biden decided in May to permit European nations with U.S.-made F-16s to coach Ukrainian aviators.
This previous winter, the U.S. Air Drive hosted two Ukrainian pilots who had flown Soviet-era jets to see how they might fare on the F-16. In an assessment dated March 22, Air Drive officers concluded that at the least some Ukrainian pilots might be skilled to fly the F-16 in 4 to 5 months.
The evaluation was based mostly on a 12-day analysis of the 2 Ukrainian pilots who underwent flight simulations on the Morris air base over the winter. It discovered that the 2 pilots nonetheless wanted sure technical abilities, together with understanding the Western cockpit’s devices and turning into comfy flying in American-standard formation with different plane.
Norway stated on Thursday that it will donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which might make it the third NATO nation to take action after the Netherlands and Denmark. And Portugal said it also would train Ukrainian pilots and engineers to fly or preserve the F-16s.
With the brand new dedication, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has estimated that his nation will obtain at the least 61 F-16s — sufficient for as many as 4 squadrons.
