Ukrainian Pilots Begin Training On Norwegian F-16s In Denmark
Norway’s defense ministry announced on Thursday that Ukrainian Air Force pilots have begun their training to fly F-16s in Denmark, using aircraft formerly operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
The announcement followed the ministry’s disclosure on January 5 that it had delivered several F-16s to a training center in Denmark used to train Ukrainian Air Force pilots to fly F-16s. According to the ministry, Royal Norwegian Air Force instructors have been in Denmark since October 2023, helping to train Ukrainian pilots even before the arrival of the aircraft.
In a January 5 press release, Lieutenant Colonel Bård Bakke, the head of the Norwegian detachment in Denmark, said he was “very impressed” by the Ukrainian personnel undergoing training.
Norway was the third country to pledge F-16s to Ukraine, doing so in August 2023. Oslo has not disclosed the number of F-16s it will be donating to Ukraine, and has not shared how many are currently in use in Denmark as trainers. Other European nations that have pledged F-16s include the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium.
Denmark shares leadership of the coalition of 13 nations providing F-16 training to Ukrainian pilots with the Netherlands, and is one of the host nations for Ukrainian F-16 training. Some Ukrainian pilots are currently undergoing training in the United States at Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Arizona. The European F-16 Training Center in Romania, opened in November 2023, will become another training center for Ukrainian pilots once fully operational.
The Royal Norwegian Air Force retired its 57 F-16s in January 2022, with 35 of them subsequently sold to Romania. Defense minister Bjørn Arild Gram has said that Norway’s defense industry is making an “impressive effort” to restore several F-16s to operational condition after nearly two years in storage, and was in the back seat for one of the F-16s’ final test flights before their delivery to Denmark.