Ukraine likely to face another year without F-16 pilots – the WP

The first group of six Ukrainian pilots will not complete their training on US-made F-16 fighter jets until next summer.

Source: The Washington Post, citing Ukrainian, European and US officials and military personnel, including senior officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity

Details: Two Ukrainian officials said only six pilots – roughly half the squadron (12-16 jets) – would complete the first training round. Two other pilots have been identified as reserve candidates.

Although the pilots speak English fluently, the sources said, they must first complete a four-month English course in the UK to learn the terminology related to jet fighters. This training will occur alongside ground personnel with poorer English language skills since Ukrainian officials say Denmark has asked that they train entire crews first, not just pilots. The Danish Defence Ministry has refused to comment on the issue.

Ukrainian officials say this pushes back the start of combat training, expected to last six months, to January. A second group of roughly the same size will be ready six months after that, by around the end of next year.

"This is called dragging it out," believes one of the Ukrainian officials. Both of them said they did not want to be too critical of their American and European counterparts out of concern for appearing ungrateful.

US officials say another 20 Ukrainian pilots are ready for English courses. They added that most of the finest Ukrainian pilots would be expected to stay in Ukraine, operating Soviet-designed aircraft.

Serhii Holubtsov, Aircraft Chief of the Ukrainian Air Force, told The Washington Post that Ukrainian pilots have been taking online English courses in between flights for the past year.

Quote from Holubtsov: "Additional specialised training will be provided to flight and ground personnel on the terminology required for the F-16 training

…It was not possible to train pilots and other personnel in Ukraine in this terminology due to the lack of experience in working with such terminology."

More details: He said the selected pilots have a high level of basic English, so learning additional terminology "will not take much time".

He added that the F-16s are armed with advanced radars, so Ukraine will be able to identify more targets and better counter Russian aircraft, missiles and drones than its current fighter fleet, consisting of Soviet-era MiG-29s and Su-27s. Holubtsov said Ukraine would also be able to fire Harpoon anti-ship missiles provided by the UK from F-16s to target the Russian navy, which launches missiles from the Black Sea.

Holubtsov said the high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARMs) sent to Ukraine by the United States last year will also be launched from the F-16s: "They are already adapted for use on MiG-29 fighters, but due to the lack of an aiming system, their effectiveness is significantly limited."

The Danish Defence Ministry refused to comment on how long the training programme would take or answer questions regarding possible delays. The Dutch government is working with Romania to set up a training centre in Romania, but US officials said it "will take time".

Lieutenant Colonel Mark van de Beek, Dutch Defence Ministry spokesperson, noted that details are still being finalised. The key problem, he said, is the lack of F-16 instructors in Europe. For example, the Netherlands is currently transitioning to the state-of-the-art F-35 and has shifted its training focus away from the F-16.

"To train a fighter pilot you also need fighter pilots. That is expensive and a capability that smaller countries don’t have much anymore," he said.

A US official, speaking anonymously, said the Biden administration had recently received a list of the pilots' names.

"Ukraine only has a handful of pilots that are ready to begin training and roughly two dozen more that they’ve told us need some additional English language training before the pilots can move forward."

The US official stressed that European countries are taking the lead in F-16 training.

While combat training for the most experienced Ukrainian pilots is expected to take six months, Ukraine's Western allies have proposed a separate programme for newcomers which would require more than two years of training, including English lessons.

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