Site icon Global Defense Corp

Ukrainian Pilots Started Training on F-16 Fighting Falcon in Denmark

Denmark’s government said Monday that the training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets has started and the retirement of the Scandinavian country’s fleet of aging U.S. fighters has been moved up two years.

The replacement fighters, F-35s, will be operative by 2025, acting Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said. Initially, the switch was planned for 2027.

Lund Poulsen said that NATO-member Denmark “has taken the step of starting a training and further education effort for the Ukrainian pilots.”

Ukrainian pilots must spend six to eight months of training before a possible donation of Danish F-16 aircraft can become a reality, Lund Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR.

“This does not mean that you cannot make a decision beforehand. But (the F-16 planes) will be in Denmark until 2024,” Lund Poulsen said.

The development follows months of internal debate in Washington over the risks of Ukraine deploying F-16s to attack targets on Russian territory and potentially escalating the conflict. The US has control over the jets’ re-export from any country that has them in its arsenal.

© 2023, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Exit mobile version