According to Kiev United States are supposed to “deliberately delay” training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 – reports “The Times”. This means that Ukraine will not have time to train enough pilots by the end of the year.
Ukraine. Fewer trained pilots than fighters
Alexandra Ustinova, the head of the parliamentary special committee on weapons and ammunition, claims that due to the delay, Ukraine will probably have only 20 fully trained pilots by the end of the year. – We'll have it for now fewer trained pilots than fighters – he admits.
So far Belgium, Dania, Netherlands i Norway pledged to donate over 60 F-16 fighters to Ukraine. The first ones are expected to arrive in the country this year. However, according to Ustinova, for now she is only training in Tucson, Arizona eight Ukrainian pilots, and another twelve are training at an air base in Denmark. Third training program in Romania hasn't started yet. Moreover, according to Ustinova, Kiev turned to Washingtonuo providing at least ten more places in educational programs, but his the request was denied.
Washington allegedly told Kiev that Ukrainian pilots were in line for training assignments they are ahead of other countries, to which the US cannot break its commitments. Official from US Department of Defense he also stated that Ukrainian pilots have difficulties with knowledge of English, as well as with learning the program. In his opinion, this means that “progress in training on the F-16 aircraft is quite poor.” Ustinova calls such allegations “ridiculous.” – These are not arguments, just excuses that they keep repeating – he emphasizes.
On the stump with Washington? Kyiv makes it clear
As Politico reports, Ukraine is demanding that the United States and other countries strengthened their commitment to training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16. Kiev previously announced that 30 pilots could start training in the US immediately. In turn, administration Joe Biden told Ukraine that their training program – which takes place in Arizona – does not have enough space to accommodate more than 12 pilots at a time.
“Le Monde” reports that the French Air Force has committed to training 26 Ukrainians to fly the F-16 within two years. Currently in France Ten Ukrainian pilots are training on Alphajet aircraft. These fighters have an instrument panel similar to that of the F-16.
Source: “The Times”, “Le Monde”, Politico