The intention of Denmark – which together with the Netherlands is leading the F-16 coalition for Ukraine – to start training for Ukrainian air force personnel this month has proven to be too optimistic. Those exercises on Danish soil will probably not start until October.
This jeopardizes the time schedule. During the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius last month, resigning defense minister of the Netherlands Kajsa Ollongren, among others, spoke of “a phase between August and the beginning of next year, in which you have to ensure that people are trained” for flying and possible fighting. with an F-16 aircraft.
The coalition of NATO countries willing to fulfill Ukraine’s fervent F-16 demand has expanded to twelve. The Netherlands and Denmark play a leading role in this coalition, in which Belgium, Canada, Norway and Poland, among others, also participate. “We will start in Denmark in August,” said Ollongrens (acting) Danish counterpart Troels Lund Poulsen in Vilnius.
According to the Dutch commander of the armed forces, Onno Eichelsheim, “Denmark will ensure that they can actually start training from the third quarter of this year”. The highest military officer in the Netherlands said this on Tuesday evening in the NPO 1 radio program Dit is de dag. The Danish Ministry of Defense does not immediately respond to questions on this subject.
Specific English slang
What does start this month is the English language training for about eight Ukrainian pilots. The American F-16 system is complicated. Mastery of a very specific English jargon is necessary for both the manuals and the use. “They are not the easiest books,” said a defense spokesman. The language courses are given in the United Kingdom.
Normally, training to become an F-16 pilot takes several years. The program that has been devised for the Ukrainians is a crash course of four to eight months. Not only pilots, but also maintenance engineers, operational planners and other ground support personnel must receive this training.
Eichelsheim repeated on NPO radio what military experts have been saying for months: that expectations about the Ukrainian deployment of the F-16s as a key factor in the war are too high. “You should not expect this to be the gold nugget that will suddenly win the war. It is part of the long-term support we are prepared to provide to Ukraine.”
No US approval yet
If it eventually comes to the actual delivery of F-16s to Ukraine, separate American permission will be required. The American news channel CNN reported last week that Washington had not yet received a concrete F-16 training program from the European allies, which would mean that it would not be possible to give formal American approval for the use of, among other things, the (military secret) manuals. and the flight simulators.
In the absence of a training program, according to CNN, the Americans cannot make a decision about possible assistance by American F-16 pilots in training the Ukrainians.
CNN relied, among other things, on a leaked memo from the Air Force. With that leak (about alleged delays on the European side), Washington would like to prevent the image in Europe of resisting Americans in supporting Ukraine’s F-16s.
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2023-08-12 14:30:34
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