A group of Ukrainian pilots have recently arrived in Romania and begun training on F-16 fighter jets, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on Sept. 12.
Ukraine received its first F-16s at the end of July, a year after its allies formed the fighter jet coalition at the NATO summit in Vilnius to support Kyiv with training and aircraft.
Ukrainian pilots arrived in Romania to start training on Dutch aircraft at the Borcea airbase "a few days ago," Digi24 news outlet reported on Sept. 12. They are now reportedly learning details about the F-16s on the ground and should start conducting training flights in October.
"There will also be more F-16s in the Ukrainian skies: a group of our pilots is already undergoing training in Romania," Umerov said.
The Netherlands has pledged to deliver 24 of its fourth-generation U.S.-made jets to Ukraine as Kyiv seeks to bolster its Air Force. Denmark, Norway, and Belgium have also pledged to supply Ukraine with dozens of F-16 jets.
Several countries have also made some of their F-16 jets available for training Ukrainian pilots. Training new pilots has been considered one of the main bottlenecks for expanding Ukraine's F-16 capabilities.
Other Ukrainian pilots have undergone training in the U.S. or Denmark, though Copenhagen said it would not provide instructions to Ukrainian aviators on its territory past 2024.
The crash of an F-16 fighter jet in Ukraine in late August has raised the question of the pace of training of Ukrainian pilots to use the aircraft on the battlefield, the Wall Street Journal reported in September, citing unnamed U.S. and Western officials.
The training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s has been happening at an accelerated pace. Ukraine's pilot training program is ongoing, but "the crash shows what happens when you try to rush things," an unnamed senior defense official told the WSJ.
Kateryna Hodunova
(Updated: )
