Training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 jets may take place in Romania

A coalition of Western countries is considering Romania as a possible location to train Ukrainian pilots to operate F-16 fighter jets. Source: Two American sources reported this to Politico, writes European Pravda Details: According to the sources of the media outlet, the fighter jet coalition is working on an agreement on conducting aviation exercises at one of the training grounds in Romania.

The training will likely be led by Lockheed Martin, which makes the F-16. European officials have neither publicly confirmed nor denied that the proposal to train Ukrainian pilots in Romania is indeed being discussed.

The Romanian Air Force has 17 second-hand F-16s purchased from Portugal and plans to purchase 32 more from Norway. However, Bucharest recently approved a plan to purchase more advanced F-35s.

The country plays an important role in NATO's Air Policing Mission, an international task force that constantly patrols European skies in order to respond rapidly to airspace violations.  The Romanian Ministry of Defence, at the request of Politico, did not confirm or deny that they were considering the possibility of training Ukrainian pilots on their territory, but noted that the country "welcomes the initiative to establish a coalition of NATO Allies to provide training of pilots for F-16s".

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Background: The issue of providing Ukraine with F-16 fighters was discussed at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group last week.

After the meeting, it was revealed that by July, Ukraine's partners plan to approve a training programme for Ukrainian pilots, engineers and technicians on F-16 fighters; the training will take place in a specially created centre in one of the European countries.

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