Training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighters has begun, said Acting Minister of Defense of Denmark Troels Lund Poulsen. The Associated Press reported this on Monday, June 26.
The Danish government said that training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 aircraft has begun, and the retirement of Scandinavian country’s fleet of aging U.S. fighters has been moved up two years. F-16 that Denmark currently owns will be replaced by F-35 by 2025 instead of 2027, AP reports.
Denmark, which is a member of NATO, “has taken the step of starting a training and further education effort for the Ukrainian pilots. We will also consider whether we should make a concrete donation to Ukraine of the Danish F-16 fighters, and how many there should be,” Poulsen said.
As the publication explains, Ukrainian pilots must spend six to eight months of training before it becomes possible to transfer F-16 aircraft to Ukraine. Poulsen noted that Denmark will have fighters until 2024, but you can make a decision on transferring them to Ukraine in advance.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on June 21, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that F-16 fighters could arrive in Ukraine in six to seven months.
The Netherlands and Denmark are leading a coalition to train Ukrainian pilots with the support of the UK and Belgium.
On May 18, the American publication Yahoo News, citing internal assessment materials from the U.S. Air Force, reported that it would take only four months to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighters.
Who we are: About us, Contacts. How we write news and our principles: Editorial code. We did our best. If you found this valuable – please support us.
To request a correction, please send an email.