Ukraine receives first F-16 fighter jets — Bloomberg

The end of July was set as the deadline for the transfer of aircraft, and it was met. According to sources, the number of jets is small.

It is unclear whether trained Ukrainian pilots will be able to use the F-16 immediately, or whether the process will take more time.

It took the planes over a year to "reach" Ukraine. The move was complicated by delays, questions about spare parts, and a language barrier between the Ukrainian pilots and their foreign instructors. Planners are also concerned that the country does not have enough airstrips and that those that do exist are vulnerable to Russian attacks.

The New York Times wrote that due to the limited number of trained personnel, Ukraine will be able to deploy only approximately 10 F-16 aircraft this year.

F-16’s long journey to Ukraine

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba recently said that the promise of the F-16 appearing in Ukrainian skies in the summer of 2024 "has already been fulfilled", although there was no official confirmation of the arrival at that time.

Back in May 2023, US President Joe Biden approved plans to train Ukrainian pilots on American F-16 fighter jets. Subsequently, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium announced that they would hand over aircraft to Ukraine, in particular for exercises to be held in Denmark and Romania.

The rest of the countries have confirmed their readiness to participate in the training of Ukrainian pilots for the F-16.

In November, the F-16 fighter pilot training center was inaugurated in the Romanian city of Fetești, where Ukrainian pilots were to be trained, in particular. Among the instructors at this base can be not only representatives of Romania, the Netherlands, and the USA, but also military pilots from other NATO member states.

The first group of Ukrainian pilots graduated in the US in May, while Denmark trained 50 Ukrainian F-16 maintenance specialists.