The jets are ready and the flight instructors are waiting at a new training center in Romania created to teach Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 fighter jet. But there’s a catch: The Ukrainian pilots have not yet arrived, despite saying last summer that the center would play a crucial role in getting them into the air to protect their country from increasingly deadly Russian attacks.
It is still unclear when training of Ukrainian pilots will begin at the center at the Fetesti air base in southeastern Romania, which NATO allies also use for fighter aircraft training. But the delay is a glimpse into the confusion and chaos the military alliance faced in delivering the F-16 aircraft.
That doesn’t mean Ukraine’s pilots aren’t prepared. Twelve pilots so far – less than a full squadron – are expected to be ready to fly F-16s in combat by the summer after 10 months of training in Denmark, Britain and the United States.
But by the time the pilots return to Ukraine, only six F-16s will have been delivered of the approximately 45 fighter jets that European allies had promised.
Still, their much-anticipated arrival on the battlefield will come not a moment too soon. Russia has used more aggressive air support in recent weeks to gain ground in eastern Ukraine, using its warplanes to send guided bombs over long distances to the Ukrainian front.
And Ukraine is desperate for more weapons of all kinds as it runs out of artillery shells and other ammunition while Republicans in Congress are holding back additional American military aid. The F-16s would likely be armed with short- and medium-range missiles and bombs, partially offsetting the lack of ground-based munitions.
“This year new fighter jets will fly into our skies, and we must make this an effective year to defend ourselves against Russian guided bombs, Russian aircraft and their missiles,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said March 1.
Still, officials agreed that much uncertainty remains about when each country will send its jets, how many, how quickly pilots can be trained and how Ukraine will get enough people who can properly maintain the planes.
By normal standards, training for Ukrainian pilots on the sophisticated Western jets was lightning fast, compressing years of classroom learning, simulations and flight exercises into months.
Still, progress is slower than Ukraine or its allies had hoped, as pilots trained in Soviet-era aircraft and tactics have had to familiarize themselves with the English language and Western military practices to operate the F-16 effectively .
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in an email exchange that “training is progressing well” and noted that Ukraine’s pilots were already flying over Danish airspace. But he said their learning curve “will ultimately determine the length of the training.”
Denmark was at the forefront of a European push to equip Ukraine with F-16s last spring. Ukrainian officials, having overcome Western resistance to the delivery of a long range of advanced weapons – artillery, anti-aircraft missiles, tanks – said the fighter jet was the last major weapon their fighters needed to win.
The Biden administration reluctantly gave in to Ukraine’s demands and allowed allies to provide the F-16. The jets are manufactured by Lockheed Martin and are being phased out by some European militaries in favor of newer F-35 fighter jets.
However, American officials have warned that the F-16s alone would not be decisive in the war and that training would definitely take a long time.
“There aren’t very many Ukrainian pilots who could fly these planes,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC News last month, defending the Biden administration’s delay in approving plans to fly F-16s to send to war. “It’s not about whether or not F-16s might have been on the battlefield in the spring of last year.”
He said the United States and its allies are now trying to send Ukraine “all the tools and capabilities it needs to be able to fight this fight as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
The training of the Ukrainian pilots began last August at the Skrydstrup air base in southern Denmark, but their lack of language skills and knowledge of Western aviation techniques slowed development. The Ukrainian pilots were only ready to fly in January, Danish officials said.
Officials said the Ukrainians were initially sent to Denmark rather than to the training center in Romania because it was not yet open when the pilots were ready for deployment. The center’s creation at the Fetesti base was announced at a NATO summit last July, and in November its instructors began training Romanian pilots for that country’s new F-16 squadron.
Last week, combat-ready Romanian and Turkish pilots piloted their F-16s in a simulated intercept attempt of a military cargo plane in Romanian airspace about 12 miles from the Black Sea, demonstrating their ability to protect NATO airspace. They later flew across the sky in dramatic dive maneuvers, revealing themselves to journalists gathered at the Fetesti base below.
Like the Ukrainian pilots, the Romanian trainees at the base mastered flying Soviet and Russian jets when they began the western courses in November. But unlike the Ukrainians, the Romanian pilots already spoke English and were familiar with NATO operational standards.
“So the transition wasn’t that difficult for us,” said one of the Romanian pilots being trained, a major who could only be identified by his call sign, Red. “And we’re just excited to keep flying.”
The next class of eight Ukrainian pilots is scheduled to arrive in Denmark at the end of the summer, but it is not clear when any of them will begin training at Fetesti.
“It’s because of the governments and the contracts that support it all,” said Col. Bill Thomas, a retired U.S. Air Force officer who oversees a Lockheed Martin training program for the Romanian pilots at the Fetesti base. “We are still waiting for all the approvals.”
Then there’s the matter of the F-16s themselves.
So far, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium have committed to sending about 45 of the jets to Ukraine, enough for three small squadrons. Denmark will send the first six in late spring, with another 13 expected to arrive later this year and by 2025.
The other countries have not set a delivery date for their F-16s. The Netherlands, which has pledged 24, will hold on to them until Ukraine is ready to receive them, said Jurriaan Esser, a spokesman for the Dutch Defense Ministry.
About 50 Ukrainian technicians are being trained in Denmark to maintain and repair the jets and handle their weapons packages, as the F-16 is so complex that it generally requires eight to 14 people to maintain each individual aircraft. Officials said Western defense contractors would have to accompany the jets to Ukraine and stay with them until there are enough Ukrainian crews to properly maintain them – a process that could take years.
And the need to repair Ukraine’s aging and war-damaged military runways could further delay the F-16’s entry into the war.
As eager as Ukraine’s leaders are to send F-16s into battle, they are just as eager to get their hands on more artillery and munitions that are crucial to the ground war against Russia.
“I don’t think F-16 aircraft will change the game because of the technical characteristics and the number of upcoming F-16 teams,” said Yevgeniya Gaber, a former Ukrainian diplomat and foreign policy adviser.
“But I think, along with other munitions and long-range missiles, they will be,” said Ms. Gaber, now a professor at the George C. Marshall Center, a national security academy supported by the German and American governments.
Mr Poulsen, the Danish defense minister, believes that the F-16s not only support Ukraine but also provide security across Europe.
“I firmly believe that Ukraine’s fight for freedom is our fight for freedom,” he said, “and that is why Denmark continues to help Ukraine as best it can.”
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2024-03-11 04:01:32
www.nytimes.com
