Guillaume Dominguez / Photo credit: TED ALJIBE / AFP 20:23 pm, May 20, 2023

The U.S. has allowed countries with F-16 fighter jets to deliver them to Ukraine, saying the announcement meets the demands of the conflict. Nevertheless, training pilots and mechanics takes time and for the time being, only the Netherlands has shown its willingness to take the plunge.

This is an announcement described as "historic" by Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president logically welcomed the green light given by the United States regarding the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Kiev. Concretely, Washington allows all countries with this type of aircraft to donate it to Ukraine, still at war with Russia. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that these devices will crisscross the Ukrainian sky in the immediate future.

Because now, the ball is in the court of Kiev's allies, owners of F-16 aircraft. It is up to them whether or not to agree to deliver part of their fleet to Ukraine. For the time being, in Europe, only the Netherlands has announced that it wants to provide them. Denmark also said it would contribute to the training of Ukrainian pilots on this model.

Four months to train pilots and up to six months for mechanics

A training, precisely, which will require a lot of time because these pilots will have to learn to fly with American aircraft. According to an initial assessment by the United States Air Force, it would take at least four months of intensive training for the best Ukrainian pilots to be operational.

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Time may take even more to train mechanics, said Gen. Patrick Dutartre, a former fighter pilot in the French Air Force. "A typical fighter squadron, for example in France, is 150 people, 15 aircraft, 20 pilots and 130 mechanics. And again, that's just the mechanics of the first and second level of maintenance. When you do a more sophisticated level, you still have to add 200 mechanics for 40 planes, which means that there are about 600 mechanics to train in parallel on the maintenance in operational condition and the maintenance of the aircraft and possible repairs. " To achieve this, it takes between four and six months, at best. Especially since Western countries have still not determined the modalities of these trainings.