Ukraine asks US and partners to speed up F-16 pilot training – Politico

Politico has reported that Ukraine’s partners are not currently training a sufficient quantity of Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 fighter jets that will soon be sent to Ukraine.

Source: Politico

Details: Ukraine says it has 30 pilots who are eligible to start training in the US immediately. Yet the Biden administration has told Kyiv it does not have enough places and cannot accept more than 12 pilot trainees at a time.

Two other facilities in Denmark and Romania have a similar problem with available places for training.

Reportedly, in a series of meetings and calls over the last few weeks, Ukraine has officially requested that the US train the additional pilots at Morris Air National Guard base in Tucson, Arizona. American lawmakers have also pressed the administration to approve the additional training.

But the US has informed the Ukrainian military that other countries are also in line for F-16 training and the US cannot break its commitments to these countries.

The National Guard plans to train 12 Ukrainian pilots at the Tucson base by the end of September, a US Air Force spokesperson said.

An anonymous former official said that at this rate, Ukraine will not have a full squadron of trained pilots until the end of 2025.

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