Netherlands to provide Ukraine with most of its F-16s
25 August, 2023 F-16 Block 20 MLU fighter of the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
2009 year. Photo credits: Nigel Blake The Netherlands will transfer almost all of its F-16 fighter jets to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Some aircraft will be used to train Ukrainian pilots. Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren stated this in her interview to Evropeiska Pravda website. "We have 42 aircraft, but some of them will be used for training, and the rest will be used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine," she said.
The minister explained that training for pilots never ends.
Minister of Defense of the Netherlands Kajsa Ollongren
"They won't necessarily be in the Netherlands, by the way, we're looking at a training center in Romania. Therefore, these aircraft will be used wherever training is conducted. As long as you're using F-16s, you're going to be training new pilots, and you're going to need that training center," said Ollongren.
The Minister noted that the Netherlands has been doing this for 40 years. "In short, you can't train one batch of pilots and stop training, it has to be a continuous process," she added. As previously reported, U.S.
President Joe Biden confirmed the U.S. intention to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s, but noted that Kyiv promised not to use the aircraft to strike Russian territory. On May 22, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that supplying Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets was a priority.
Ukraine's partners will start implementing the plan in the coming months. The next day, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Western allies would determine individually when to start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s.
F-16AM of the Royal Danish Air Force. Photo from open sources
On August 20, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that the country plans to send 19 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, the first six closer to the New Year.
The Norwegian authorities also decided to transfer their F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.