First F-16s Arrive At Romanian Training Center For Ukrainian Pilots
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky announced on Tuesday that the first five F-16s to be used for training Ukrainian Air Force pilots had arrived at a training facility in Romania.
“I’m grateful to the Netherlands and Prime Minister Mark Rutte for leading the way in supporting Ukraine. Today marks a milestone: five Dutch F-16s have already arrived at the training center in Romania. We keep working together to welcome F-16s into Ukrainian skies as soon as possible”, said Zelensky in a post on X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter.
The departure of the F-16s had been announced earlier that day by the Dutch defense ministry, which provided the aircraft in question. In a statement, the ministry said that it will be making 12 to 18 F-16s available for use at the European F-16 Training Center, with the training F-16s remaining the property of the Netherlands and operating only within NATO airspace.
According to the ministry, the F-16s’ first missions will be refresher courses for the F-16 instructors that will train Ukrainian and Romanian pilots once the training center is officially opened.
The Netherlands and Denmark had jointly pledged in August to supply at least 42 F-16s to Ukraine. The Danish government said at the time that it would deliver 19 F-16s in stages, but the Dutch government has yet to provide a total number of F-16s it would deliver. Both nations are jointly leading a coalition of 11 nations supporting the effort to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s and possibly other Western combat aircraft.
The European F-16 Training Center is currently being set up at the Romanian Air Force’s 86th Air Base near the town of Fetești. At the end of August, F-16 manufacturer Lockheed Martin signed a letter of intent with the Romanian and Netherlands government to create the training center, with Lockheed Martin saying at the time that it could “potentially” be used to train Ukrainian pilots in addition to pilots from central and eastern European F-16 users.
A small number of Ukrainian pilots have begun F-16 training in the United States, with the Arizona Air National Guard’s 162nd Wing conducting initial training at Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson. The 162nd Wing is the sole unit in the Air Force and Air National Guard that provides foreign pilots basic F-16 training, doing so for pilots from 25 countries since 1989.